MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia wasn’t at its best Thursday night against Georgia State in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both squads from Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
Yet the Mountaineers were good enough to produce their desired result as an own goal off a corner kick with 9:50 remaining made all the difference in a 1-0 victory that makes it five consecutive matches without a loss for WVU.
“There is always a game like that around this time of year in all my experience even before West Virginia,” WVU head coach Dan Stratford said. “I just said to the guys, somewhere in game 5 through 9, there’s just this game that’s void of everything — void of our energy, void of our dynamism, looks a little lethargic in the way that we played. We didn’t quite get the boost off the bench either and you have to find a way. You have to grind it out and find a way off a set piece.
“As far as the result, very pleased. I don’t know that the performance reflected how we’ve been trending. How we played against George Mason, how we played against UNCG, how we played against Denver here. We’ll try and get back to that against a good Duquesne side on Tuesday, and we’ll happily take the three points on our way.”
WVU generated an abundance of corner kicks throughout the match, and it was the team’s 11th of 12 that led to the lone goal of the match — one the Panthers (5-2-1) inadvertently knocked into their own net.
From there, the Mountaineers (4-1-1) hung on and recorded their second straight clean sheet. Since opening the season with a 3-0 loss at Charlotte, West Virginia has surrendered two goals in five contests.
Despite failing to produce quality scoring chances at a consistent rate, WVU largely controlled the match against a Panthers’ squad chosen last in the Sun Belt Preseason Poll, but one that was unbeaten over its first six matches this season.
The Mountaineers had all six shots on goal and attempted 10 to one for Georgia State.
“It’s almost impossible to deny that the outcome holds a lot of the energy, momentum, the nature of our atmosphere,” Stratford said. “If we play exactly the same and the game finishes nil-nil or we lose, I know it’s a bit more somber and a bit more of a down environment than it is right now when the reality is the quality performance is exactly the same. We have a marginal moment on a corner where I don’t know if we even scored it technically, but it decides to go in. Other days, it doesn’t, and you have to live with the consequences of not getting the result. Certainly from a momentum perspective and understanding we’re the first team to play within the conference standings, and getting off to a start like that, especially at home, is really important.”
Toby Mawer was in goal throughout for WVU and tallied his third shutout this season.
Georgia State keeper Jackson Burrell had a strong showing in defeat and recorded five saves.
The Mountaineers improved to 4-0 at home this season and 30-2-9 on their pitch since the start of 2023.
“It was definitely a grind. Credit to Georgia State,” Stratford said. “They defended well. They had a pretty good game plan. For 80-something minutes, it was probably going their way, even if we felt we were the better team.”