WVU Falls to Bowling Green in MAC Semifinals
November 14, 2014 07:24 PM | General
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AKRON, Ohio – The West Virginia men’s soccer team fell 3-2 to Bowling Green in overtime in the semifinal match of the Mid-American Conference Championship on Friday evening at FirstEnergy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field.
“You win with grace and you lose with dignity. We didn’t play very well in the first 45 minutes,” coach Marlon LeBlanc said. “It was almost like we expected things were going to go our way and they put a lot of numbers behind the ball. We were sloppy in terms of our connection and they were able to counter.
“We went into the locker room and made a number of adjustments obviously and they worked. We just defended poorly for the last 25 minutes of the game. We didn’t do a good job connecting passes.”
Max Auden gave Bowling Green the win in the 91st minute with a shot inside the six-yard box to the inside right of WVU senior goalkeeper Lee Johnston. Bowling Green pinged a ball into the top of the 18-yard box to Pat Flynn, who was able to slide a pass through the WVU defense to Auden.
WVU falls to 11-7-1 overall and the loss snaps a five-game winning streak that the Mountaineers entered the tournament with. WVU finished with a 16-11 edge in shots, but Bowling Green led in shots on goal, 8-6.
Flynn gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute, netting his 14th goal of the season following a scrum in front of the net. Ryan James took a shot for BGSU that was cleared off the line by sophomore Jack Elliott. James got the rebound and passed to Flynn, who took a shot that went to the right of Johnston.
WVU senior Andy Bevin scored the game-tying goal in the 55th minute on a header over Bowling Green goalkeeper Nick Landsberger’s reach. Freshman Joey Piatczyc played a cross from the right side that hung in the air and Bevin sent in the header from eight yards out for his 13th goal of the season.
In the 61st minute, junior Jamie Merriam received a through ball from sophomore Mike Desiderio and was able to hold off a defender, taking a left-footed shot from 16 yards out under Landsberger to give WVU a 2-1 lead.
Keaton Reynolds nearly tied the match for Bowling Green in the 74th minute, receiving a pass that went through the WVU defense. Johnston came out from the goal, narrowed the angle and Reynolds’ shot went just wide.
Jacob Roth tied the match at 2-2 in the 82nd minute for Bowling Green with a penalty kick to the left of Johnston. Roth was tripped inside the box by sophomore Alex Ochoa after receiving a pass from Brad Macomber.
Auden nearly gave BGSU the lead in the 87th minute as he worked his way behind the WVU defense, but Auden had his shot saved by Johnston.
The best chance for the Mountaineers in the first half came from Piatczyc, who took the first shot on goal in the 14th minute, sending a shot from 30 yards away that was punched over the crossbar by Landsberger.
West Virginia will now wait and see its NCAA Championship fate with the selection show on Monday, Nov. 17, at 1 p.m. The show will be streamed live on NCAA.com.
Wren Baker | May 19
Tuesday, May 19
NCAA Selection Show
Wednesday, May 13
WVU Baseball Defensive Highlights
Tuesday, May 12
Kansas Recap
Tuesday, May 12
