MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Two-hundred minutes of soccer spread out over two matches in the last two weeks did not produce a goal between West Virginia and Marshall. However, a pair of scoreless draws and a penalty shootout allowed the Mountaineers to secure a pair of conference championships.
WVU defeated Marshall, 6-5 on penalty kicks to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Championship. The Mountaineers completed a sweep of the SBC titles after winning the regular season championship with a 0-0 draw in Huntington on November 5.
“When we played in the regular season, I didn’t feel like we gave the best account of ourselves and played to our full potential at their place. We were hungry and excited to give a fair reflection of the team that we really are. I think, with great respect to a very good Marshall team, I thought we were fully deserving of the result today,” said WVU head coach Dan Stratford.
“I said to the guys that after 90 minutes we probably deserved to win the game. Keep going and after a hundred minutes, the same thing, and the same after 110. If it meant we have to go through penalties, so be it.”
“When you get down to penalties, it really is a coin flip sometimes. You get through the first five and nothing happens,” said Marshall head coach Chris Grassie.
“It is very, very close and it is obviously a rivalry game with very good teams that are both ranked high up. But it wouldn’t matter if we were 150 or 160 in the rankings. The games would still be that tense and that exciting.”
The match, which took over three hours to complete, featured 41 fouls and ten yellow cards.
In the first half, WVU (12-1-7) had a pair of quality scoring chances in the 27th and 38th minutes. Marshall goalkeeper Aleksa Janjic made a pair of diving saves to his right. Scoring opportunities were few and far between for both sides in the second half and the match went to overtime scoreless.
In the first overtime period, Jancic leaped to make a save in the 97th minute off a well-struck shot from Simon Carlson. Less than 30 seconds later, Sergio Ors Navarro headed a ball off a corner kick that struck the post and stayed out of the net.
After another scoreless overtime session, the match headed to penalty kicks.
“The guys were excellent in [penalties] practice,” Stratford said. “We talked through a few of the scenarios and some visualization stuff, making sure that when we practice them, it is with as much realism as possible.”
The Mountaineers were first up in penalties. Ors Navarro scored for WVU on a “double-doink” shot that deflected off both posts and trickled across the line.
“That was one of the most unbelievable penalties I have ever seen,” said WVU goalkeeper Marc Bonnaire. “It quite literally rolled one time across the line and then stopped after hitting both posts. It was quite crazy.”
With the shootout tied 5-5, sudden death kicks followed. Dyon Dromers, who endured an injury-filled last two seasons, stepped to the spot and gave WVU a 6-5 edge.
“It has not been quite the year that he wanted,” Stratford said. “What an incredible attitude he has had the whole time. I am so happy for him and happy that he has that memory from a difficult season.”
WVU had a second chance to end the shootout and Bonnaire did just that, diving to his left to make a save that touched off a raucous celebrating from the sellout crowd.
“A lot of work goes into it before the game,” Bonnaire said. “We get together before the game, all the goalies with our coach Nick Noble, we make a decision based off what we see in the past on which side we think they will be going to. It is kind of pre-determined with which way we are going to be diving.”
“We talked about at the start of the year that we wanted to do something special this year as a team,” said WVU graduate student midfielder Ryan Baer. “I really felt like everyone has kind of bought into that.”
Marshall (11-1-7) now checks in at No. 8 in the NCAA RPI while West Virginia is No. 16. The NCAA Tournament Selection Show is set for Monday at 1 p.m.
“Last night I did the math and kind of looked at taking the RPI into account,” Grassie said. “But the RPI is not everything. Taking account of win/loss record, last eight, Quad 1 and 2 victories, strength of schedule, and I kind of ranked the Top 20 teams. And we came out third. So we should be pushing for a top four seed.”