WVU Anticipating Record Crowd For Wednesday Night’s WVU-Marshall Match
October 17, 2023 03:44 PM | Men's Soccer, Blog
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By: John Antonik
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Dick Dlesk Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia, is going to be the epicenter of men's college soccer on Wednesday night when seventh-ranked West Virginia takes on top-ranked Marshall in a clash of undefeated teams.
The match has been sold out for three weeks now and Jimmy DelGatto, WVU's director of facilities and operations, said additional seating has been added to accommodate an expected overflow crowd.
"We have five additional bleachers on both sides of our normal standing bleachers," he said. "We have five in the picnic area outside the visiting team locker room, and we have five outside our home team locker room.
"Also, outside of our home team locker room we've set up a hospitality tent for additional food and beer sales through Sodexo," DelGatto added. "We have our normal additional bleachers behind our home team bench for staff, and we also have a standing room only area for the pass list and donors to stand behind the home team bench."
DelGatto is anticipating a crowd in the "low 3,000s," which would be an attendance record for men's soccer.
"Of course, I think it's a tremendous opportunity for both Marshall and West Virginia to showcase the quality of the programs that we have," West Virginia coach Dan Stratford said. "I hope you are going to see two groups of young men who are going to fight tooth and nail for the name on the front of their shirts and for the two (Division I) programs who are representing West Virginia." West Virginia coach Dan Stratford owns a 34-13-15 record in his fourth season at WVU (Logan Adams photo).
WVU's largest crowd was 2,938 for its season-opening match against 16th-ranked Cal-Santa Barbara on Sept. 4, 2009, and the facility's largest attendance was the 3,000 who showed up for the women's team's NCAA Tournament Elite Eight match against ninth-ranked USC on Nov. 30, 2007.
According to DelGatto, there are 1,525 seats in Dick Dlesk Stadium, and with an additional 500 bleacher seats added, that means as many as 1,000 fans will be standing. Considering the quality of soccer on Wednesday night, everyone should be on their feet.
Coach Chris Grassie has turned Marshall into one of the powerhouse programs in the country. His Thundering Herd won the College Cup in 2021 and boast a 12-0 record heading into Wednesday night's match.
Marshall has one of the nation's most potent offensive attacks, averaging 3.17 goals per game, which includes a recent 6-1 victory over Coastal Carolina. The Herd's 38-to-5 scoring differential is the largest in the country. Grassie, who has 24 foreign players on his roster this year, has talked little about the Mountaineers until he was finally asked about them following Saturday's Coastal win.
"Who?" he joked. "We haven't been talking about WVU because I've tried not to think about it and just worry about what's coming next. You've got to take care of the next step in front of you."
Now that the next step is in front of them, Grassie said he is preparing his team for more pressure on Wednesday night.
"We've had some games that have been in the middle of the field in what we call the building game, and I think we have to come back and look at what's going to happen if we get under pressure," Grassie said.
"With WVU this year, they've attacked with their back four and their back three, so you really don't know exactly what you're going to get. We're just going to spin the wheel of some of our own basics and fundamentals and just really try and focus on us and do our own things," he said.
Grassie and Stratford are certainly familiar with each other. Stratford was on Grassie's coaching staff when he led the University of Charleston to a pair of Division II runner-up finishes before Grassie handed over the coaching reins to Stratford.
"We're great friends, and we always look forward to catching up," Stratford said. "It's a pain that they happen to be as good as they are, and that they also happen to be in our conference and a rival.
"I don't think that will change how much we enjoy each other. I'm going to see him tonight and we're going to catch up a little bit later when my responsibilities with our team are spoken for - as are his," Stratford added. "That's always been kind of tradition, either the night before or the morning of the game. I've known him now since 2012, and I owe him a lot."
In three seasons at UC, Stratford guided the Eagles to national titles in 2017 and 2019, which led to a job offer from his alma mater. After posting a 6-3-1 record during the COVID year, Stratford's Mountaineers won 12 matches two years ago and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, reaching as high as No. 3 in the national polls.
This year, West Virginia is undefeated in 13 matches with four ties and rose to a program-best No. 2 in the polls on Sept. 12. Subsequent ties to Loyola, Maryland and James Madison have knocked the Mountaineers down five spots to No. 7 as of last week. This week's coaches' poll has not come out yet.
The Mountaineers have the nation's seventh-best goal scorer in sophomore forward Marcus Caldeira, a Mississauga, Ontario, resident, and the country's fourth-best playmaker in Yutaro Tsukada, from Tokyo.
Like Marshall, most of West Virginia's players are from outside the state. The Mountaineers have four state natives on their roster this year – Morgantown's Dante Huckaby, Wheeling's Luke Lenz and Charleston's Max Trethewey and Sam Clark; Marshall has just one – Ona's Ryan Holmes – which means Wednesday night's match in Morgantown will have sort of a United Nations flavor.
It will also be a sea of Gold and Blue, with a little Green and White sprinkled in.
West Virginia owns a 16-7-2 record over Marshall since 1983 in what has become known as the "Mountain State Derby," but the Herd have claimed two of the last four matches before large, boisterous crowds at Hoops Family Field in Huntington.
No. 4 Marshall defeated West Virginia 1-0 in front of 2,735 fans in Huntington last year and claimed a 2-1 victory with 2,126 watching in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament, also in Huntington.
Two years ago, the two teams played to a 2-2 tie in Huntington before a record crowd of 3,033.
"I saw something on social media where somebody posted something belittling the fact that we had to add bleachers to increase our attendance," Stratford said. "I thought, 'Well, Marshall's highest attendance was the last time when we were there,' so we're both doing each other favors in terms of how we're growing the sport and the attention surrounding men's soccer at both universities within the state."
The last time West Virginia played host to the No. 1-ranked team in the coaches' poll was Oct. 10, 2016, when it lost 1-0 to Maryland.
DelGatto said there will be roped-off areas on both sides of the goals for the Mountaineer Maniacs, and extra event security will be on hand to accommodate the additional fans.
The Pride of West Virginia will be practicing at the stadium on Wednesday afternoon instead of in their normal practice area, which is going to open up some additional parking space for fans who wish to tailgate beforehand.
"Parking should not be an issue," DelGatto said.
Getting a ticket to see the match? Well, that's another matter entirely.
For those not fortunate enough to have a ticket, the match will be televised on ESPN+.
