— By David Walsh
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Two shots hit the post. Two shots glanced off the crossbar. A Marshall player possibly gets taken down in the box, but no call and then after review the no call stands.
Moments after a breakthrough goal, the Thundering Herd suffers a backline slip-up, goalkeeper Alan Horrocks gets caught well off the line and a shot by Fairfield goes in to tie the game at 1 with 3:05 left.
That simply set the stage for heroics that could’ve hardly come any later.
Adam N’Goran got open in the box and fired a shot home to score the game-winning goal with 6 seconds left.
The closest thing to a soccer walk-off moment lifted the Herd to a 2-1 win over the Stags on Thursday night in front of 1,957 fans at Hoops Family Field/Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex.
“I was there,” N’Goran said. “Two posts, two crossbars. Anything can happen in this game. Keep it going. At least we got rewarded.”
ADAM N’GORAN ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/LIuor0f5B9
— Marshall University Men’s Soccer (@HerdMSoccer) August 21, 2026
The two teams went scoreless in the first half.
“We dominated the whole match,” Marshall coach Chris Grassie said. “Their keeper made some great saves. We made some changes early. It’s early, three weeks into the season. Everybody who came on did a pretty decent job. We stuck with it. With 17 seconds left, I said, ‘Will somebody please score?’ Hit the post a lot. Score three or four and I feel it’s a lot different. Credit to the guys.”
All the scoring came in the final 15 minutes. Goncalo Machado posted the goal in the 75th minute when he collected a loose ball inside the box and one-timed a shot that caught the far corner for a 1-0 Herd lead.
Fairfield didn’t need to wait long to gain the equalizer as just over 1 minute expired. The scoring chance started when goalkeeper Evan Chomow collected the ball inside the box and sent the ball down field with a strong strike from his box.
The ball landed about 30 yards from goal, where it went bounced over the head of Horrocks, who left his line to try and clear. Cristiano Carlos beat the Marshall defenders to the ball and headed it into the open goal for his first goal as a Stag.
Enter N’Goran. The ball was played into the box by Ryan Holmes where Nikita Pakhomov headed it back to N’Goran. He hit a volley that landed just inside the far post with six seconds on the clock.
“I said who’s going to step up and score goals for us?” Grassie said. “It was a left back and center midfield. We can spread the scores some. We had great chances, had them on the ropes so long they’re on their last legs.”
After the N’Goran goal, players on the Herd bench ran through the Fairfield side to celebrate the moment. Marshall got a yellow card for the action.
“We’ve got to fix our goal-celebration decorum,” Grassie said. “We had nice composure and were there in the right place. We have to be a little more professional.”
The Fairfield goal is one Grassie would like to forget.
“It was a freak mistake and let them back in it,” Grassie said. “It was a bad decision on the goal. It’s a preventable one. We’ll work on it.”
Fairfield’s decision to crowd in around its box made it tough for the Herd. Forced some changes in its style of play.
“Today was about defense,” Grassie said. “They defended us deep. Instead of playing vertical, we had to play horizontal to get the right rhythm. We had the right idea. Now we’ve got to execute it better.”
Marshall’s next match is August 27 at UC Santa Barbara.