By: Connor Brown, FM88 Sports<\/p>\n
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.\u00a0\u2013 The 15<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0ranked\u00a0Marshall men’s soccer\u00a0team\u00a0returns to Hoops Family Field\u00a0on\u00a0Sunday night looking to turn its recent comeback momentum into its second win of the 2026 season when the Thundering\u00a0Herd hosts\u00a0the\u00a0VCU\u00a0Rams.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Pregame coverage will begin at 7\u00a0p.m., with\u00a0first\u00a0touch\u00a0set for\u202f7:15 p.m.,\u00a0the match\u00a0is\u00a0available on\u00a0WMUL-FM\u00a088.1, where FM88 Sports Connor Brown and Max Chaffin will be on the call.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Marshall enters the matchup\u202f1-0-2\u202fafter rallying from a\u00a0three-goal\u00a0deficit to earn a 3-3 draw at George Mason on Tuesday. VCU comes into Huntington\u202f0-2-2\u202fon the season,\u00a0after scoring in the 89th minute to draw\u00a0against the\u00a014<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0ranked\u00a0High Point\u00a0Panthers, 1-1, on Wednesday.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For Marshall, Tuesday’s comeback was\u00a0just\u00a0another example of a team that has shown an ability to create chances but is still working to find\u00a0its\u00a0consistency in the\u00a0young season.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Herd trailed George Mason 3-0 before scoring\u00a0an astonishing\u00a0three times in the final 23 minutes\u00a0of the match. Nikita Pakhomov opened the comeback in the 69th minute, Joshua Nugent pulled Marshall within one in the 81st, and Thiago Apolinario completed the comeback with just over four minutes remaining.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Apolinario now leads Marshall with\u202ftwo goals\u202fthrough three matches, while Pakhomov and\u00a0Nugent have\u00a0each scored once. Goncalo Machado and Adam N’Goran have also found the net for the Herd this season. Marshall has scored\u202fsix goals\u00a0on\u00a038 shots\u202fthrough three matches.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Head coach Chris Grassie knows there is still another level his team can reach.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis season will be\u00a0decided on\u00a0whether or not we can figure ourselves out,\u201d Grassie said following the draw at George Mason. \u201cAt our best, we are\u00a0absolutely unplayable. At our worst.\u00a0We are Dr. Jekyll\u00a0and Mr. Hyde right now.\u00a0If we can just toughen up and work harder to get on the front foot, we can win every match we play.\u201d\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Grassie added that the Herd needs to \u201ctoughen up and work harder to get on the front foot\u201d as it continues to develop early in the season.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Marshall’s attack will face a VCU defense that has already been tested by some of the nation’s best teams.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Rams opened the season with a 4-1 loss at UNC Greensboro, followed by a scoreless draw at Wake Forest. VCU then dropped a 1-0 decision at North Carolina before earning its latest result at\u00a0High Point.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite entering Sunday without a win, VCU has played four consecutive road matches against\u00a0strong competition.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Rams’ latest result came courtesy of forward\u202fKimarly\u00a0Scott, who headed home the\u00a0tying goal\u00a0in the 89th minute against High Point. It was Scott’s first goal of the season. Mohammed Ibrahim\u00a0assisted\u00a0on the play.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n VCU has scored only\u202ftwo goals through\u00a0its first\u00a0four matches, but goalkeeper\u202fManuel Monteiro\u202fhas kept the Rams competitive\u00a0and in matches. Monteiro has started all four matches and has recorded\u202f13 saves\u202fthis season. As a team, VCU has taken 23 shots while allowing 54.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Rams have also spent the opening weeks of the season learning how to compete against nationally ranked opponents.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Following the loss at North Carolina, VCU head coach Dave Giffard said his team was making progress despite the result.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRight\u00a0now,\u00a0we lack cutting edge and coordination into the final third,\u201d Giffard said after the North Carolina match. \u201cAll the teams we will play in the non-conference portion of the schedule will likely be NCAA tournament teams.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Giffard added that while VCU is still working through problems, the experience against highly ranked teams could help the Rams later in the season.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That growth was on display against High Point. After the Panthers took a 1-0 lead in the 85th minute, VCU answered four minutes later when Scott found the back of the net.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Giffard called the result another step forward for his team.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI thought tonight was more steps forward,\u201d Giffard said. \u201cWe rallied from down a goal, found a few good entries into the box and got a point on the road in another step forward in a long season.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now the Rams face another ranked opponent in\u00a0the\u00a0Marshall\u00a0Thundering Herd.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Herd,\u00a0however,\u00a0is\u00a0returning\u00a0home\u00a0to Hoops Family Field\u00a0for the first time since opening the season with a 2-1 victory over Fairfield on Aug. 20. Marshall has\u00a0remained\u00a0unbeaten through its first three matches and has already shown it can respond when facing adversity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sunday’s matchup could come down to whether Marshall’s attacking pressure can break through a VCU defense that has spent the first month of the season facing elite competition.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For Marshall, it is another opportunity to build on that\u00a0comeback\u00a0against\u00a0George\u00a0Mason and\u00a0another chance to show which version of the Herd will\u00a0make its way onto the pitch.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Connor Brown, FM88 Sports HUNTINGTON, W.Va.\u00a0\u2013 The 15th\u00a0ranked\u00a0Marshall men’s soccer\u00a0team\u00a0returns to Hoops Family Field\u00a0on\u00a0Sunday night looking to turn its recent comeback momentum into its second win of the 2026 season when the Thundering\u00a0Herd hosts\u00a0the\u00a0VCU\u00a0Rams.\u00a0 Pregame coverage will begin at 7\u00a0p.m., with\u00a0first\u00a0touch\u00a0set for\u202f7:15 p.m.,\u00a0the match\u00a0is\u00a0available on\u00a0WMUL-FM\u00a088.1, where FM88 Sports Connor Brown and Max Chaffin will<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,1829,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-mens-soccer","category-wmul-sports"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284","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\/1101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5284"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5291,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284\/revisions\/5291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/wmul\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}