— By David Walsh
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall put its best foot forward at the right time and escaped with a 2-1 win over Coastal Carolina in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both teams Friday night at Hoops Family Field/Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex.
David de la Vibora raced into the box and chipped a shot home at 32:49 to give the Thundering Herd a 1-0 lead. Francis Keaviano got the ball in the right spot and de la Vibora got on the doorstep and got the goal.
At 41:00, after a long VAR from the official after the play had ended, a ruling came that Coastal Carolina’s Joaquin Suarez took a Herd player down in the box. That set the home team up with its fourth PK in six matches and Rai Pinto converted down the middle as Chanticleers goalkeeper Harrison Gough guessed left.
“It’s always a tough game against Coastal,” Marshall coach Chris Grassie said. “They defend very well. They made it very transitional. You say you’re going to get the best shot. Whoever shows up. Della did a good job with that. Sort of a partner play. We had a quick switch, it (ball) came back and we were able to score. That was kind of key. All night when they’re sitting low you’ve got to switch the ball quickly. Alibar actually drops in from the forward line, he turns, he switches and then we come back. We’re able to get a man open. If we just try without switching, we couldn’t create the extra man.”
Grassie had the feeling Pinto would respond on the PK.
“We have to make sure we have set pieces. Have to be good,” Grassie said. “We seem to get a lot of Pandy (Pinto) so I’ll take it. Don’t get many free kicks, but we get a lot of penalties.”
Coastal Carolina (1-4) made it interesting late in the first half. The No. 6 Herd (3-0-3) had a slip up of sorts on defense and the Chanticleers responded. Angel Lopez Martin had a shot go off the post and teammate Jaland Lamond swooped in on the rebound and put a shot past Marshall keeper Dan Rose to cut the lead to 2-1 at 42:00.
In the second half, the Herd defenders tightened up and kept the Chanticleers off the board.
“As a team, we didn’t get the men in the dangerous spots,” Grassie said in how the Chanticleers broke through. “We kind of watched the ball a little bit. You don’t want to watch. We worked on that all week. We need to step up enough in those moments. You want to be involved.”
In the 63rd minute, the Chanticleers had a header in the box, the ball dropped in front of the goal and Coastal Carolina’s Christian Cook sent a shot over the crossbar
Marshall is now 2-1-3 all-time in the series with Coastal Carolina.