HARRISONBURG, Va. — An early strike from their leading scorer and a second-half tally between a pair of defenders allowed No. 9 West Virginia to lock up the No. 1 seed in next week’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament and a share of the regular season title with a 2-0 win at James Madison.
West Virginia (10-4-2, 6-1-2 Sun Belt) shares the regular season SBC title with Marshall. WVU earns the No. 1 seed tiebreaker by goal differential in league matches.
Playing nearly simultaneously on the final day of the regular season, Marshall defeated Old Dominion, 3-0 in Huntington. The Mountain State rivals finished with 20 points each and matching overall records.
“I had no idea until one of my assistants let me know with about two minutes to go what the score was in other places,” said WVU head coach Dan Stratford. But I would have had no problem waiting to the 90th minute and still not knowing right now. We knew we controlled our destiny and controlled the one seed.”
West Virginia needed just under six minutes to take an early lead against the Dukes (7-6-4, 4-2-3 Sun Belt). Isaac Scheer sent a cross to Pablo Pozos and he delivered an acrobatic strike for his team-leading seventh goal.
“I thought we still played well after that. We talked a lot about what our identity is, what we’ve done well and what we look like when we are at our best and having the courage to continue to do those things, given the context. We got the goal early. But I thought we continued to look like the better team for the vast majority of the first half.”
West Virginia kept the lead into halftime, thanks in large part to Toby Mawer’s brilliant save in the dying seconds of the half, one of his three stops in the match.
“His form has been outstanding. I think he has really shown over the last four or five games in particular why we think he is the best goalkeeper in the conference, for sure. I hope he earns that accolade here before too long.”
In the 64th minute, WVU doubled their advantage as Tyler Londono sent a cross into the box and Tristan Puszatahegyi found Civan de Jesus Ferreira for his second goal of the season.
After winning just one of their first four Sun Belt matches, West Virginia has won five in a row, outscoring their opponents 12-0 in that span.
“They have continued to showcase a resilience and a fortitude. When you start to collect those receipts of another clean sheet, a multi-goal win, get through the likes of the Georgia Southern game the way we did with ten men, you are starting to build momentum, build confidence and belief in what the team is capable of.”
As the No. 2 seed, Marshall will host quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, just as WVU will do. Should West Virginia advance to the championship, the Mountaineers will host the title match on November 15.
West Virginia will host No. 8 seed Georgia Southern (6-6-4, 2-5-2) Sunday at 3 p.m. in the SBC quarterfinals.
“The fact that we’ve shown up the way we have and played the way we did, finished the second half incredibly professionally and a little more pragmatic in the approach at times appropriately, I am just really, really proud that we have grown in that maturity as well and obviously got over the line the way we did.”
Postgame interview with head coach Dan Stratford after WVU’s 2-0 win over James Madison, securing the regular season Sun Belt co-championship & No. 1 seed in the SBC Tourney: https://t.co/KQSibOoawW
— MetroNews Sports (@MetroNewsSports) November 4, 2026