MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia senior Pablo Pozos got a surprise visit this week from his mom, Teresa Bueno, who traveled from Spain to Morgantown to see her son play in person.
Pozos treated her to a special performance by scoring separate goals 1:51 apart to stake the 25th-ranked Mountaineers to a two-goal lead against Central Florida, and they went on to record a 3-0 victory Wednesday night at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
“I feel that was a push coming into today’s game,” Pozos said. “I have also been looking for it and sometimes it doesn’t land on you. Then you can have two goals in a matter of 5 minutes. Goals come like this and I just want to keep working hard, keep helping the team with what I can and goals will come eventually.”
The result keeps WVU (7-2-4, 3-1-2 Sun Belt Conference) in a three-way tie for second place in the Sun Belt with Marshall and South Carolina, and the Mountaineers moved to within two points of first place James Madison as a result of the Thundering Herd defeating the Dukes, 1-0.
“Really good in different phases and different periods of the game,” WVU head coach Dan Stratford said. “Started in a really dominant possession-oriented way and showcased a really effective high press later in the same half and some elements of professionalism. Obviously clinical, and had some unbelievable chances in the second half as well. We can improve a little bit in those transitional moments in terms of execution of quality decision-making to maintain where the game is played. But it’s tricky, and I understand, because when you get a taste of a high process that’s successful and you score, it’s hard not to want to do that every time.”
West Virginia also remained unbeaten at home this season, improving to 7-0-1 at a venue it’s enjoyed a wealth of success at.
“There’s a level of comfort almost in knowing when you’re at home, you’re so difficult to beat,” Stratford said.
Mountaineers’ goalkeeper Toby Mawer recorded a career-best six saves while recording a clean sheet, including two 10 seconds apart to deny the Knights’ Alex Partera and Drew Hansen on separate quality scoring chances.
“It just happened on reaction,” Mawer said. “My role is to keep us in the game for then Pablo to go score. I do what I can to just keep the ball out of the goal. It was improvised, but it worked.”
With the match still scoreless in the 33rd minute, Pozos took a pass from Kanta Ishii and beat UCF (6-4-3, 2-3-1) keeper Matisse Hebert for the first goal of the match. That marked Pozos’ fifth goal this season and first since his second of two goals back on September 11 in a win against Denver.
A transfer from Division II Wingate who scored 11 goals last year in his first campaign at WVU, Pozos made it a multi-goal effort when he beat Hebert again at the 34:20 mark of the first half. His second goal was assisted by Julen Recalde and Isaac Scheer and enabled the home team to hold a 2-0 halftime lead.
“If we’re 1-nil up and can go get another one, there’s a bit less pressure,” Mawer said. “We can settle in. We still want more goals like tonight and Kentucky, but it really helps the team settle in, especially the defense. We still stuck to how we play and played out even in the 70th minute when we were 3-nil up. That’s part of our identity, which is good.”
Any thought of complacency setting in for the Mountaineers was erased early into the second half when Civan de Jesus Ferreira capitalized on a corner kick to score his first goal of the season at the 47:22 mark. Ishii and Harry Hogben were each credited with an assist on the third and final goal of the match.
“That’s probably the most effective we’ve been in the high press so far this season, but we knew that was going to be necessary with the nature of how they play and how good they can be if they break that pressure,” Stratford said. “Overall, really pleased in terms of how they executed the game plan and the outcome of the game.”
Since going 0-1-3 over a stretch of four matches, the Mountaineers have won two straight by a combined total of 7-0.
WVU is back in action Sunday at Georgia Southern and finishes out the regular season by welcoming Coastal Carolina next Thursday, before traveling to JMU for a match on November 3.
Hebert stopped five shots in defeat.
The Knights are 1-3-2 away from home this season.