MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia dominated statistically, but had nothing to show for it through 90 minutes of a Sun Belt Conference Tournament semifinal Wednesday night against Coastal Carolina at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
Playing a man up for the final 33-plus minutes of regulation, the No. 1 seed and seventh-ranked Mountaineers had what looked to be a late go-ahead goal from Pablo Pazos waved off for offside after it was checked by VAR.
Instead, the match against the fifth-seeded Chanticleers went to a Golden goal overtime format — one Coastal Carolina was plenty familiar with, having defeated James Madison, 2-1, on Sunday with 1:56 left in the second extra session.
This time around, the Chanticleers weren’t as fortuitous, and the Mountaineers instead generated the game-winning goal when Aurelien Cormier sent a right-footed cross into the 18-yard box that defender Civan de Jesus Ferreira jumped to get a head on and beat Coastal keeper Nash Skoglund 5:59 into the first overtime.
“You kind of get to a point where you accept it’s not going to be the perfect picture you paint in your mind,” WVU head coach Dan Stratford said. “By any means necessary and it probably felt that way towards the end of the game.”
With the result, WVU (12-2-4) secured a spot in Sunday’s Sun Belt final and will play host to No. 6 seed South Carolina. The Gamecocks rallied from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Marshall, 4-3, in overtime Wednesday.
For de Jesus Ferreira, it marked his third goal this season, all of which have been scored over the last six matches.
“I saw the ball on the right side and then I saw the ball switched over to Aurelien,” he said. “I was more on the side of Aurelien and then I decided — because I knew he was going to swing it in — that I’d kind of back off from the side. When he swung it in, I just went and attacked the ball. It went in. I just tried my best to get my head in there. It was a great cross. I’m happy for it.”
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It brought an abrupt end to a match that had a little bit of everything with the exception of a goal until then.
Skoglund made five first-half saves to keep the Chanticleers (7-7-4) squarely in the match 13 days after they’d lost to the Mountaineers at the same venue, 2-0.
“For Nash to stand tall, be brave off his line, to come out through traffic, it was paramount and it kept the game at zeroes for the length of time that it did,” Coastal head coach Adam Perron said. “I’m sure he wishes he could’ve made some flying save on the last one, but that was such a good header. It was frustrating for him I’m sure, but a fantastic game for Nash.”
In the 57th minute, Coastal’s Alberto de Miguel was given a red card and sent off for dissent, forcing the visitors to play with 10 players the rest of the way.
The Chanticleers looked to be down to nine available players later in the second half as reserve Sammy Murphy was initially given a red card at 75:19, but that decision was downgraded to a yellow card after being checked by VAR.
“The nature of how their team is built and the profile of players they have, they’ll want to play you straight up,” Stratford said. “That type of game is a game that we love and really back ourselves in those situations. Inevitably, when a player gets sent off, they’re going to concede a little bit more territory. I actually felt they still did a really good job of possessing some element of threat. It wasn’t like they never tried to run forward and break on us. They played with 10 men incredibly well.”
Still, the Mountaineers had a man advantage and looked to strike first at 84:53 when Pablo Pozos got a shot by Skoglund. However, that goal was waved off for what was ruled offside, keeping the match scoreless, which is how it remained through 90 minutes of regulation.
Following the decision to overturn the sequence to no goal, WVU associate head coach Andy Wright was sent off for a red card.
Entering overtime, WVU had eight of the nine shots on goal between the two teams as well as 32 of 33 shot attempts and 13 of 15 corner kicks as it was another stingy defensive showing for the Mountaineers that marked their eighth straight shutout.
“We’re taking a lot of pride in it for sure,” WVU defender Tristan Pusztahegyi said. “We’re checking the stats every day seeing how many clean sheets the other teams have. It’s always in the back of our head. It’s always good to keep that. If we don’t let the other team score, we at least get a tie, but we’re always looking for the win. A lot of pride in that, and we’re at eight right now, which is good. We’re doing a good job. We just want to keep going at it.”
WVU keeper Toby Mawer stopped the only shot he faced.
The Mountaineers have won seven consecutive matches and are unbeaten over their last eight.
WVU and South Carolina battled to a 1-all tie back on October 3 in Morgantown.
“The second half, really difficult to criticize them. It’s a game that felt like it had everything except for goals up to that point,” Stratford said. “Staying focused and tuned in to what was really important was a little more challenging perhaps. A lot of reviews, a lot of cards, a lot of things that can be distracting and kind of break up the realm of things. As much credit as I gave them, I have to give a ton of credit to our guys for the way we persevered.
“We’ve been on this fantastic run. We’re still on this run thankfully. We’ve played some brilliant football in recent weeks. Multi-goal wins, lots of clean sheets, it’s been great. It would be unrealistic to think there wasn’t going to be a little adversity, a little bump in the road, a little challenge like tonight. To overcome it and get to play for a conference championship on Sunday is a really good feeling.”