HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) \u2014 No. 17 Marshall men’s soccer opens its 2026 regular season Thursday against Fairfield at Hoops Family Field, beginning a campaign in which the Thundering Herd enters with expectations to match its national ranking.<\/p>\n
Marshall finished 12-4-5 last season and made its seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The Herd was picked to finish second in the Sun Belt Conference preseason poll.<\/p>\n
Senior forward Carl Romberg will be a key player to watch for Marshall as he returns for his final season in Huntington. Romberg led the Herd with 15 points last season, scoring five goals and adding five assists. He was also selected to the preseason All-Sun Belt team.<\/p>\n
Fairfield finished 8-5-5 last season and advanced to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals. The Stags also return two preseason all-conference selections in sophomores Sean Albritton and Alex Raz, who combined for 24 points last season.<\/p>\n
Expectations may be high for the Herd, but Fairfield has already shown it is more than capable of handling a challenge like Thursday’s.<\/p>\n
The Stags faced two nationally ranked opponents last season, falling 4-2 to No. 9 Vermont before producing one of their biggest wins of the season against No. 17 Marist. Fairfield traveled to Poughkeepsie, New York, and left with a convincing 5-1 victory over the Red Foxes.<\/p>\n
Now, with Marshall occupying the same No. 17 spot Marist held at the time of that matchup, Fairfield will look to replicate that success in Huntington.<\/p>\n
Marshall is currently the only ranked opponent on Fairfield’s 2026 schedule, making Thursday’s matchup an early opportunity for the Stags to test themselves against one of the nation’s top teams.<\/p>\n
For Marshall, Thursday marks the beginning of another season with NCAA Tournament expectations. For Fairfield, it presents a chance to once again prove it can compete with nationally ranked competition.<\/p>\n
The first test of the 2026 season awaits Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. at Hoops Family Field. The match will be broadcast live on WMUL-FM 88.1, with FM 88 Sports’ Ethan Peltier and Ethan Patrick on the call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marshall Men’s Soccer Preview By Ethan Peltier, FM88 Sports Aug. 19, 2026 HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WMUL-FM) \u2014 No. 17 Marshall men’s soccer opens its 2026 regular season Thursday against Fairfield at Hoops Family Field, beginning a campaign in which the Thundering Herd enters with expectations to match its national ranking. Marshall finished 12-4-5 last season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1052,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,1829,5],"tags":[1842,115,104,1834,696,695,1838,1839,1843,1836,1837,100,377,1830,111,69,144,1831,28,138,15,1840,1841,251,143,1832,236,23,212,243,1833,1835,51,96],"class_list":["post-5244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-mens-soccer","category-wmul-sports","tag-college-mens-soccer","tag-college-radio","tag-ethan-peltier","tag-ethan-peltier-fm88-sports","tag-ethan-peltier-marshall","tag-ethan-peltier-wmul","tag-fairfield-mens-soccer","tag-fairfield-msoc","tag-fairfield-stags","tag-fairfield-university","tag-fairfield-university-mens-soccer","tag-fm88-sports","tag-herd-mens-soccer","tag-herd-msoc","tag-hoops-family-field","tag-huntington-wv","tag-marshall-mens-soccer","tag-marshall-msoc","tag-marshall-university","tag-marshall-university-athletics","tag-mens-soccer","tag-msoc","tag-ncaa-msoc","tag-sbc","tag-sbc-mens-soccer","tag-sbc-msoc","tag-sun-belt-conference","tag-thundering-herd","tag-thundering-herd-athletics","tag-thundering-herd-mens-soccer","tag-thundering-herd-msoc","tag-veterans-memorial-soccer-complex","tag-wmul","tag-wv"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1052"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5245,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5244\/revisions\/5245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}