Photo by: Alex King
LeBlanc's Mountaineer Squad Looking For A Different Finish In 2018
October 16, 2018 05:10 PM | Men's Soccer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It's always nice reading the good things written about your team, that is unless you're West Virginia men's soccer coach Marlon LeBlanc.
Earlier this year, after a disappointing 4-1 loss to Radford, LeBlanc sought out Quinn Burkitt, reporter for WVU's student newspaper The Daily Athenaeum, and told him to quit writing so many good stories about his team.
"My players are starting to believe it," he growled.
Ask LeBlanc to talk about his 9-5 Mountaineers coming off impressive consecutive conference road wins over Western Michigan and Akron, and he begins each response by tapping his wooden table for good luck.
It's his disclaimer to the Soccer Gods.
"I have a vote in the top 25 poll, and I won't vote for us," he laughed. "I don't care if we win the next four, I'm still not voting for us. This group does better when they feel slighted a little bit."
You see, LeBlanc's been down this road plenty of times before - his teams starting off the season like gangbusters only to see a good record vanish at the snap of a finger once the weather gets a little colder.
Last year, West Virginia was sitting at 7-3-3 after a big home victory over fifth-ranked Michigan State before ending the season 2-3-1 with a 1-0 loss to Western Michigan in the Mid-American Conference tournament.
Two years ago, WVU started 6-1-1 before things once again fizzled by going 2-6 over its final eight games, including a 2-1 double-overtime loss to Northern Illinois in the final game of the season.
His 2015 team had stabilized its record at 6-6 following a nice 3-0 win over Penn State when the bottom fell out. That squad won just one of its final seven matches to finish with a 7-12 record - one of only two losing seasons LeBlanc's teams have endured during his 13-year tenure at West Virginia, second longest now to John C. McGrath's 27 seasons in Morgantown.
But unlike those recent teams, LeBlanc has finally got some experienced players to turn to when the long-sleeved-shirt weather arrives.
And it has arrived, in case you haven't been outside in the last 24 hours.
"We were young the last couple of years, and we didn't graduate a lot of guys, so we have some experience," LeBlanc mentioned, "but with Joey Piatczyc that changed everything. We were 9-6-4 last year without him and everything we did was planned around him and then four days before the season it kind of crumbled."
That's when Piatcyzc's junior season ended because of a knee injury. Piatcyzc, from Lee's Summit, Missouri, became the school's all-time leader in assists earlier this year and now shows 29 heading into Saturday's big match against SIU Edwardsville (more on them shortly).
The best playmaker in school history is now scoring goals, too. His tally with 13 seconds left in regulation sent last Saturday's game at Akron into overtime, and two minutes later he got the game winner when he dribbled the ball across the box and sent it into the bottom right corner of the net.
LeBlanc has Piatcyzc playing a little higher in West Virginia's attack this year because he doesn't have a true center forward to utilize.
"We've committed two forwards and a third player, Joey, playing underneath them," LeBlanc explained. "There is a little bit of a higher risk element with us pushing more forward, but I think we need him to carry the load."
This tactical tweak has already accounted for three more goals in 14 games this year than the Mountaineers scored during the entire 2017 season. The team also has a lower goals-against percentage because it is possessing the ball more frequently and winning those 50-50 balls much higher up the field, LeBlanc explained.
"We actually had more possessions than Akron did – at Akron," LeBlanc noted. "That's unheard of. Akron is renowned for being one of the best possession soccer teams in the country, but we've been really good at possessing the ball, and I think that's helped us from a defensive standpoint because we don't have to defend quite as much."
And whenever West Virginia gets possession of the ball, LeBlanc has instructed Piatcyzc to get it on his foot as much as possible.
After Piatcyzc missed a couple games earlier this season because of a hamstring injury, one of those being the three-goal loss to Radford, he came back and was deferring to the other players.
LeBlanc had seen enough following his team's 3-0 defeat at 17th-ranked Wright State a week ago, a game played two days after West Virginia returned to Morgantown following a 16-hour bus ride from Western Michigan. He sat his best player down and explained to him that the team simply plays much better whenever he has the ball.
"I told Joey, 'If you give up the ball in the penalty area you better make sure it's a tap in, otherwise, I want you to take the risk. If you've got to beat an extra man to get your shot off then that's what you need to do,'" LeBlanc explained. "He did that in this past game at Akron and scored two fantastic goals."
Those two goals at Akron have put West Virginia in the driver's seat in the MAC race with three weeks left in the regular season.
WVU's four most recent victories over Delaware, Binghamton, Western Michigan and Akron have also moved its RPI from the 120s to 39 heading into Saturday's match against 9-1-3 SIUE.
The common sports fan might not know much about the Cougars, but people who follow college soccer understand that Saturday's match in Morgantown is a red-letter game on the Mountaineers' schedule.
This is a program that once made four trips to the College Cup between 1975-82, winning it all in 1979, and making 13 NCAA tournament appearances before dropping down to Division II status in the mid-1990s.
A return to Division I a decade ago has resulted in NCAA trips in 2014 and 2016 for the Cougars before they joined the MAC in the summer of 2017.
The addition of SIU Edwardsville and the departures of Buffalo, Hartwick and Florida Atlantic have really enhanced the MAC's status as a solid, six-team men's soccer conference.
Last year, the MAC got two teams into the NCAA tournament for what has traditionally been just a one-bid league. With West Virginia's RPI improving, and SIU Edwardsville currently sitting at 30, the MAC could be looking at another two-bid year if things go right down the stretch.
"Maybe three if Akron gets on a roll late in the season," LeBlanc pointed out.
Since leaving the Big East in 2012, the NCAA tournament has been elusive for LeBlanc's WVU program. It has struggled to duplicate the great success it enjoyed during his first six years leading the program when the Mountaineers made four NCAA tournament appearances, including one during their final season in the Big East in 2011.
The ensuing years have forced LeBlanc to switch his recruiting focus from New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia and Maryland to the Midwest where four starters on this year's team come from the same Kansas City club team, one being Piatczyc.
"The East coast kids don't know the MAC," LeBlanc admitted. "Initially, (the move out of the Big East) hurt our (soccer) brand but now we've gotten used to it. And we've got six quality soccer programs that have helped elevate our league."
Now, LeBlanc wants his Mountaineer program to elevate themselves back to where they were more than a half-decade ago when they left the Big East.
One more victory will give West Virginia double-digit wins in a season for just the second time since 2011, the last time coming in 2014, and right now the Mountaineers remain in control of their postseason fate.
After Saturday night's 7 p.m. match against SIUE, West Virginia has regular season matches remaining against Pitt, Bowling Green and Northern Illinois.
All four games can help West Virginia's postseason status. The loss to Radford was harmful (#124 RPI), but the others to Wright State (#18), UNC Wilmington (#21), Central Florida (#23) and Maryland (#33) were not.
Win the next two conference matches and the Mountaineers lock up home field for the MAC tournament, which features all six teams for the first time this year.
Beat the Panthers next Tuesday night in Morgantown and that will give WVU a nice non-conference victory over a solid ACC program that shows seven wins so far this season. Incidentally, last year Pitt put one on the Mountaineers, beating them 7-0 in Pittsburgh.
It was the first time LeBlanc had ever lost to Pitt.
"We had played a lot of games in a short period of time, and they were really up for the game and we weren't. I don't think we'll have that problem this time around," LeBlanc said, tapping his wooden table one more time for good luck.
After all, the Soccer Gods are always alert to these sort of things - even if his players aren't.
Now, if only he can keep them from reading this … or believing it.
Earlier this year, after a disappointing 4-1 loss to Radford, LeBlanc sought out Quinn Burkitt, reporter for WVU's student newspaper The Daily Athenaeum, and told him to quit writing so many good stories about his team.
"My players are starting to believe it," he growled.
Ask LeBlanc to talk about his 9-5 Mountaineers coming off impressive consecutive conference road wins over Western Michigan and Akron, and he begins each response by tapping his wooden table for good luck.
It's his disclaimer to the Soccer Gods.
"I have a vote in the top 25 poll, and I won't vote for us," he laughed. "I don't care if we win the next four, I'm still not voting for us. This group does better when they feel slighted a little bit."
You see, LeBlanc's been down this road plenty of times before - his teams starting off the season like gangbusters only to see a good record vanish at the snap of a finger once the weather gets a little colder.
Last year, West Virginia was sitting at 7-3-3 after a big home victory over fifth-ranked Michigan State before ending the season 2-3-1 with a 1-0 loss to Western Michigan in the Mid-American Conference tournament.
Two years ago, WVU started 6-1-1 before things once again fizzled by going 2-6 over its final eight games, including a 2-1 double-overtime loss to Northern Illinois in the final game of the season.
His 2015 team had stabilized its record at 6-6 following a nice 3-0 win over Penn State when the bottom fell out. That squad won just one of its final seven matches to finish with a 7-12 record - one of only two losing seasons LeBlanc's teams have endured during his 13-year tenure at West Virginia, second longest now to John C. McGrath's 27 seasons in Morgantown.
But unlike those recent teams, LeBlanc has finally got some experienced players to turn to when the long-sleeved-shirt weather arrives.
And it has arrived, in case you haven't been outside in the last 24 hours.
"We were young the last couple of years, and we didn't graduate a lot of guys, so we have some experience," LeBlanc mentioned, "but with Joey Piatczyc that changed everything. We were 9-6-4 last year without him and everything we did was planned around him and then four days before the season it kind of crumbled."
That's when Piatcyzc's junior season ended because of a knee injury. Piatcyzc, from Lee's Summit, Missouri, became the school's all-time leader in assists earlier this year and now shows 29 heading into Saturday's big match against SIU Edwardsville (more on them shortly).
The best playmaker in school history is now scoring goals, too. His tally with 13 seconds left in regulation sent last Saturday's game at Akron into overtime, and two minutes later he got the game winner when he dribbled the ball across the box and sent it into the bottom right corner of the net.
LeBlanc has Piatcyzc playing a little higher in West Virginia's attack this year because he doesn't have a true center forward to utilize.
"We've committed two forwards and a third player, Joey, playing underneath them," LeBlanc explained. "There is a little bit of a higher risk element with us pushing more forward, but I think we need him to carry the load."
This tactical tweak has already accounted for three more goals in 14 games this year than the Mountaineers scored during the entire 2017 season. The team also has a lower goals-against percentage because it is possessing the ball more frequently and winning those 50-50 balls much higher up the field, LeBlanc explained."We actually had more possessions than Akron did – at Akron," LeBlanc noted. "That's unheard of. Akron is renowned for being one of the best possession soccer teams in the country, but we've been really good at possessing the ball, and I think that's helped us from a defensive standpoint because we don't have to defend quite as much."
And whenever West Virginia gets possession of the ball, LeBlanc has instructed Piatcyzc to get it on his foot as much as possible.
After Piatcyzc missed a couple games earlier this season because of a hamstring injury, one of those being the three-goal loss to Radford, he came back and was deferring to the other players.
LeBlanc had seen enough following his team's 3-0 defeat at 17th-ranked Wright State a week ago, a game played two days after West Virginia returned to Morgantown following a 16-hour bus ride from Western Michigan. He sat his best player down and explained to him that the team simply plays much better whenever he has the ball.
"I told Joey, 'If you give up the ball in the penalty area you better make sure it's a tap in, otherwise, I want you to take the risk. If you've got to beat an extra man to get your shot off then that's what you need to do,'" LeBlanc explained. "He did that in this past game at Akron and scored two fantastic goals."
Those two goals at Akron have put West Virginia in the driver's seat in the MAC race with three weeks left in the regular season.
WVU's four most recent victories over Delaware, Binghamton, Western Michigan and Akron have also moved its RPI from the 120s to 39 heading into Saturday's match against 9-1-3 SIUE.
The common sports fan might not know much about the Cougars, but people who follow college soccer understand that Saturday's match in Morgantown is a red-letter game on the Mountaineers' schedule.
This is a program that once made four trips to the College Cup between 1975-82, winning it all in 1979, and making 13 NCAA tournament appearances before dropping down to Division II status in the mid-1990s.
A return to Division I a decade ago has resulted in NCAA trips in 2014 and 2016 for the Cougars before they joined the MAC in the summer of 2017.
The addition of SIU Edwardsville and the departures of Buffalo, Hartwick and Florida Atlantic have really enhanced the MAC's status as a solid, six-team men's soccer conference.
Last year, the MAC got two teams into the NCAA tournament for what has traditionally been just a one-bid league. With West Virginia's RPI improving, and SIU Edwardsville currently sitting at 30, the MAC could be looking at another two-bid year if things go right down the stretch.
"Maybe three if Akron gets on a roll late in the season," LeBlanc pointed out.
Since leaving the Big East in 2012, the NCAA tournament has been elusive for LeBlanc's WVU program. It has struggled to duplicate the great success it enjoyed during his first six years leading the program when the Mountaineers made four NCAA tournament appearances, including one during their final season in the Big East in 2011.
The ensuing years have forced LeBlanc to switch his recruiting focus from New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia and Maryland to the Midwest where four starters on this year's team come from the same Kansas City club team, one being Piatczyc.
"The East coast kids don't know the MAC," LeBlanc admitted. "Initially, (the move out of the Big East) hurt our (soccer) brand but now we've gotten used to it. And we've got six quality soccer programs that have helped elevate our league."
Now, LeBlanc wants his Mountaineer program to elevate themselves back to where they were more than a half-decade ago when they left the Big East.
One more victory will give West Virginia double-digit wins in a season for just the second time since 2011, the last time coming in 2014, and right now the Mountaineers remain in control of their postseason fate.
After Saturday night's 7 p.m. match against SIUE, West Virginia has regular season matches remaining against Pitt, Bowling Green and Northern Illinois.
All four games can help West Virginia's postseason status. The loss to Radford was harmful (#124 RPI), but the others to Wright State (#18), UNC Wilmington (#21), Central Florida (#23) and Maryland (#33) were not.
Win the next two conference matches and the Mountaineers lock up home field for the MAC tournament, which features all six teams for the first time this year.
Beat the Panthers next Tuesday night in Morgantown and that will give WVU a nice non-conference victory over a solid ACC program that shows seven wins so far this season. Incidentally, last year Pitt put one on the Mountaineers, beating them 7-0 in Pittsburgh.
It was the first time LeBlanc had ever lost to Pitt.
"We had played a lot of games in a short period of time, and they were really up for the game and we weren't. I don't think we'll have that problem this time around," LeBlanc said, tapping his wooden table one more time for good luck.
After all, the Soccer Gods are always alert to these sort of things - even if his players aren't.
Now, if only he can keep them from reading this … or believing it.
Players Mentioned
MF
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