— By David Walsh
Milo Yosef scored in the first overtime to send Marshall past Charlotte, 2-1, in Conference USA soccer Saturday night in front of 1,546 fans at Transamerica Field in Charlotte, N.C.
Yosef found the net for the Golden Goal on a shot high to the right with Gabriel Alves getting the assist at 96:08. It’s Yosef’s third goal of the season and first game-winner. He now has 19 career goals and seven game-winners.
Marshall, the reigning College Cup champion, improved to 10-1-3, 4-0-2 in C-USA and second in the standings with 14 points. No. 18 Florida International (5-0-1) leads with 16 points.
The 49ers are 8-5-0, 3-3-0 in the league. Charlotte’s current win streak ends at four.
This was the fifth overtime of the season for the Thundering Herd.
No. 3 Marshall took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Jan Erik-Leinhos at 24:33 on some quality touch passing between Vinicius Fernandes to Yosef who found Leinhos for a quick blast from outside the 18-yard box for his first goal of the season.
Charlotte got even at 26:39 on a goal by Delasi Batse. It was the first shot to get past Thundering Herd goalkeeper Oliver Semmle since Sept. 17 in a 2-2 double overtime tie against West Virginia.
Since then, the Herd and Semmle had posted seven straight shutouts, a program record for the school and Semmle (18 career shutouts). The Herd has given up just 11 goals on the season.
49ers keeper Daniel Kuzemka stopped five shots.
The Herd had to play a man down nearly the whole second half and overtime when Fernandes picked up a red card in the 55th minute. Charlotte’s Kameron Lacy received a red card in the 96th minute, 30 seconds before Yosef scored. Lacey got the red when he collided with Semmle in the 6-yard box.
The match featured 27 total fouls with 15 on Charlotte and 12 on the Herd. The 49ers got three yellows and the red and Marshall two yellows and the red.
With the victory, the Herd is now unbeaten in its last 17-straight C-USA matches, including the 2019 C-USA Tournament. The last time Marshall lost a conference match was Oct. 26, 2019 at Florida Atlantic by a 1-0 final. The streak is tied for the 15th-longest unbeaten conference stretch (including league tournaments) in NCAA history. The Herd is tied with Harvard (1969-71), Evansville (1989-91), Louisville (2009-11) and Stanford (2014-15).
Marshall’s next match is Saturday at home against South Carolina. It’s Senior Night for the Herd. Start time is 7 p.m. Marshall ends the regular season Nov. 5 at FIU.