West Virginia men’s soccer is still standing. The second-seeded Mountaineers advanced to the Sun Belt semifinals after a 2-2 draw with Old Dominion, winning 5-4 in penalty kicks Sunday afternoon at Dick
Dlesk.
WVU took a first-half lead after Isaac Scheer buried his first goal of the season in the 33rd minute. That lead held for most of the day until Old Dominion found their footing in the second half, with forward Lewis Rourke scoring twice to turn up the pressure late.
Down a goal with less than a minute to play, West Virginia earned one more free kick. Juan Alvarez sent the service into the box, Carlos Hernando flicked it across, and Pablo Pozos met it with a header for the equalizer. It was Pozos’s team-leading eleventh goal of the season—and his first in five matches.
Neither team could find a winner through two tense overtime periods that saw the Mountaineers hit the post twice.
Marc Bonnaire gave WVU an edge in the shootout, guessing right on Old Dominion’s first attempt. From there, Oscar Trujillo Lizarraga, Pablo Pozos, Juan Alvarez, and finally Isaac Scheer all converted their kicks. Scheer’s goal in the fifth round set the stage for Bonnaire to end it, diving to stop the Monarchs’ final kick and send the Mountaineers through to the next round.
Dan Stratford said afterward that the win reflected the team’s mentality, keeping each other engaged and locked in when fatigue and frustration could have taken over.
West Virginia improves to 12-3-3 and will face Marshall on Wednesday at 7:00PM at Dick Dlesk in the Sun Belt semifinal. The Herd beat Georgia State, 3-1, tonight to set up the Mountain State Derby rematch.
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