Marshall Men’s Soccer Recap
By Shane Darling, FM88 Sports Director
HUNTINGTON, WV (WMUL-FM) – Two of the most prestigious collegiate soccer programs of the last decade faced off in Huntington on Sunday night, and they were as evenly matched as anyone would expect. The No. 21 West Virginia Mountaineers came to the east side of Mountain Momma to face off with the Thundering Herd Men’s Soccer Team, who was the first team out of the top 25 rankings.
The Thundering Herd felt in control throughout the entirety of the first half. Due to this control, Marshall goalkeeper Yurij Obert made just one easy save in the first 45 minutes. Marshall got the sold-out crowd of 3,307 going as Carl Romberg finished Haruhi Taneda’s cross 25 minutes into the match to strike first.
The Mountaineers came out flying to start the second half. WVU took complete control of the game and pressed high on Marshall’s back line. There was a large sense of uncomfortability for the Herd with this new-found West Virginia pressure. WVU’s Thomas Bowe had a golden opportunity under 12 minutes into the second half from the left side of the box, but he hit the woodwork. Five minutes later, Jacob Redenfors cut to his left at the top-right of the 18-yard box, and he slotted a shot into the bottom-right corner of the net, knotting the game up at one apiece.
Marshall seemed to get its offensive swagger back with the game being even again. David Cho put a shot on net five minutes after the WVU goal that was saved by Mountaineer goalkeeper Toby Mawer. With 19 minutes to go, Imre Hermansen knuckled one from outside the box in the
center of the field, but it went high. Gabriel Stevenato chipped one over Mawer with under 14 minutes to play, but it went just wide to the right.
The teams played even the rest of the way through, en route to a 1-1 draw.
Marshall is now 4-1-3 on the season while WVU is 5-1-2. There is now a large pack tied for first place in the Sun Belt Conference as five teams are 1-0-1 in conference play and nobody is 2-0-0.
Marshall heads to Orlando, Fla. for a matchup with the University of Central Florida Knights on Saturday at 7 p.m. West Virginia takes on the top-ranked team in the country, the South Carolina Gamecocks, at home on Saturday at 7 p.m. South Carolina is 7-1-1 on the year but is 0-1-1 in its last two matches.