Men’s Soccer Travels to No. 12 Penn State
October 21, 2014 04:01 PM | General
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“Penn State has had a great season thus far and it will be a tough battle. They’re an attacking team and it should be a good match by both teams,” coach Marlon LeBlanc said. “I was pleased with our performance in parts of the match at Akron, so hopefully we will continue to build from that.”
West Virginia (6-6-1) is coming off a tough 3-2 loss at Akron last Friday evening. The Mountaineers scored the first two goals of the match before conceding three unanswered goals by the Zips.
Senior Andy Bevin notched two goals to bring his season total to seven, tying him for the team leading junior Jamie Merriam. Bevin also has six assists to lead WVU with 20 points.
Merriam has three assists for 17 points, while junior Ryan Cain has four goals and three assists for 11 points. Freshmen Joey Piatczyc and Louis Thomas have five assists apiece.
Senior goalkeeper Lee Johnston has a 1.64 goals-against average with 23 saves and two shutouts.
After beginning the season 10-0-1, Penn State (10-2-1) has dropped its last two games against Maryland (4-0) and Michigan State (2-0). The Nittany Lions have been ranked as high as No. 2 this season.
Sophomore Connor Maloney has a team-leading eight goals, as well as two assists, for 18 points. Senior Mikey Minutillo has five goals and six assists for 14 points. Junior Brian James has a team-leading six assists.
Senior goalkeeper Andrew Wolverton has an impressive 0.69 goals-against average, allowing just eight goals and making 39 saves with eight shutouts in 12 starts.
The teams used to play yearly dating back to 1965, but have only played four games since 1990. Penn State holds the overall series at 19-6-2, but West Virginia is 2-1-1 since the series was renewed in 2006.
