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Goal in 106th Minute Downs WVU
November 03, 2015 10:40 PM | Men's Soccer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University men’s soccer team lost to Penn, 3-2, in double overtime on Tuesday evening at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
The Mountaineers (6-11) scored two goals in the first 30 minutes, but the Quakers (3-9) rallied with a goal in the 38th and 60th minute before netting the winner at 105:30. WVU had 30 shots, the most in a match since 1995.
“We had a lot of chances, found the bar a couple of times, had one cleared off the line,” WVU coach Marlon LeBlanc said. “At the end of the day, we had 30 chances to score, and we scored two. Give Penn credit, their goalkeeper absolutely stood on his head tonight, and they stole one in overtime.”
Junior forward Felix Angerer netted WVU’s first goal in the seventh minute, while freshman forward Rushawn Larmond scored West Virginia’s second goal in the 30th minute. Angerer added an assist on the second goal, while sophomore Colin Hester assisted on each score.
“At the end of the day, we had a different approach to the game, right from the start,” LeBlanc said. “The game that is on our minds is Friday night, because that’s the one that really matters at this stage. At the end of the day, we wanted to make sure we were ready for Friday night. We wanted to give some guys an opportunity to play tonight, which we did, and we got a lot of minutes out of them tonight.”
With a Mid-American Conference match vs. Northern Illinois on Friday in the regular season finale, LeBlanc rested many of WVU’s starters for the first 70 minutes of the match. The Mountaineers host the Huskies at 6 p.m. at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, with a potential berth in the MAC Tournament on the line.
The Mountaineers had a season-high 30 shots, nine on goal on Tuesday. Eight came from WVU’s starters, while seven Mountaineer subs recorded 22 shots, six on goal. The seven subs, all but one with at least 10 starts on the season, came into the match in the 70th minute, and proceeded to have seven shots in their first two minutes on the pitch.
In the match, six shots came from senior Ryan Cain and four from fellow senior Jamie Merriam. Both Cain and Merriam had a pair of potential game-winning shots on goal. All seven subs that entered the match in the 70th minute had at least two shots.
Penn had 14 shots in the match, six on goal. WVU goalkeeper Daniel Diaz made three saves in 106 minutes, while Penn’s Max Polkinhorne had six saves and the Quakers also recorded a team save.
The Mountaineers got on the board early thanks to Angerer at 6:19. He got the ball just past midfield from Hester. Just outside the center circle, Angerer beat the Penn defense, dribbled inside the 18 and fired a shot to the left of the Penn keeper.
A throw-in led to WVU’s second goal at 29:22. Junior Griffin Libhart had the throw-in and quickly got the ball back, where he sent it into the box. The ball was tipped by a Penn defender to Hester, who fired a shot in from just outside the 18 on the left side. Hester’s shot was tipped, right to Larmond, who fired a shot past the Penn keeper.
Penn scored in the 38th minute on a goal by Alec Neumann. Sam Wancowicz evened the score at 2-2 in the 60th minute before he scored the game winner at 105:30 in the second overtime.
In the 84th minute, Merriam had a header from inside the six, but Polkinhorne just got a hand on the ball and made a nice save to tip the ball out. In the final minute of the first overtime, sophomore Joey Piatczyc had a great shot to score the winner with a strike from inside the 18, but it went high.
West Virginia closes out the regular season against Northern Illinois on Friday, Nov. 6. The Senior Day matchup will now begin at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than originally scheduled, and admission is free for all fans, courtesy of WVU Medicine. Before the match, WVU will honor its senior class of Haydon Bennett, Ivo Cabral, Ryan Cain, Francio Henry, Griffin Libhart, Zak Leedom and Jamie Merriam.
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