The West Virginia Mountaineers (4-6-3) hosted the No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats (8-0-4) at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium on Saturday night. The Mountaineers would walk away with a 3-3 draw, with senior midfielder Dyon Dromers picking up two goals in the match.
Kentucky outshot the Mountaineers 17-11, but only had 7-6 shots on goal advantage. Both goalkeepers made three saves in the match.
The West Virginia defense got off to a shaky start, with miscommunications and it led to an early goal in the 5th minute on an overhead kick by Luis Grasscow.
Kentucky would break through again in the 11th minute, when Casper Grening, after hitting the post moments earlier, fired a shot into the bottom right corner to double their lead.
The defense was able to settle in after this, intercepting key Kentucky passes and not allowing them into the box.
West Virginia would cut into the Kentucky deficit in the 23rd minute when Yutaro Tsukada sent a ball across goal that made it past Kentucky keeper Casper Mols and put into the back of the net by Adam Burchell to cut Kentucky’s lead to one.
Kentucky had a huge chance to regain their 2 goal lead in the 34th minute, when a ball across goal found the open feet of Ken Miller who fired a first time shot, but Marc Bonnaire made an excellent diving save to keep the Mountaineers in the match.
West Virginia would go into the half down 2-1, with Kentucky having a 8-5 advantage in shots. Both goalkeepers made one save in the half.
The scoring in the second half would be opened by the Mountaineers, when Dyon Dromers scored his first goal of the match when he headed a bouncing ball off of a corner past Kentucky keeper Casper Mols in the 60th minute.
17 minutes later, Dyon Dromers would get his second goal of the match, this time to put the Mountaineers ahead off of a pass from Ryan Crooks.
West Virginia couldn’t hold the lead for long, with Kentucky’s Casper Grening getting second goal of the match just 17 seconds later to even the score.
The game would go quiet offensively until the final minute when West Virginia earned a corner, and in the waning seconds Sergio Ors Navarro got a head on the cross and sent it towards the goal, but Kentucky keeper Casper Mols was able to stop it on along the goal line to keep the game level, which is what it would end.
Photo by WVSportsnow.com
