The No. 5 ranked West Virginia men’s soccer team will take on in-state rival No.1 ranked Marshall in a highly anticipated Sun Belt Conference matchup.
“I think we have been honest enough with the players to kind of acknowledge that this is more than just the three points in conference,” said West Virginia head coach Dan Stratford. “We’d be naive to kind of deny the occasion and just how unique it is.”
Both teams are coming into this game without a loss, with the Mountaineers sitting at 9-0-4 while the Thundering Herd are 12-0-0.
“I would hazard a guess that this will probably never happen again where you’re this late in October and you have two teams who are undefeated, both ranked in the top five or so in the country, and it’s an in-state rivalry as well, so to be playing Marshall who are number one in the country and rightly so, at home, for it to be an in-state rivalry, and for the opponent, us, to be undefeated on the season, and obviously to be doing as well as we are as well, I think it is an incredibly unique set of circumstances that just only add to the occasion.”
This season the Mountaineers have been led by sophomore forward Marcus Caldeira who has totaled nine goals in the team’s 13 games on the season and also has himself a national player of the week award. Meanwhile Marshall are led by sophomore forward Matthew Bell and redshirt freshman forward Marco Silva who both have seven goals in the Thundering Herd’s 12 games on the season.
Both teams have a player within the top five in the country for assists with West Virginia’s Yutaro Tsukada tied for fifth with his eight assists while Marshall’s Matthew Bell is tied for third with his nine assists.
Currently, Marshall is first in the nation for scoring offense, averaging 3.17 goals per game in comparison to the Mountaineers 1.92.
Defensively both teams are strong as they are both allowing under a goal per game.
For Stratford, one of the things he is looking forward to is coaching against his former boss from when he was an assistant at the University of Charleston, current Marshall head coach Chris Grassie.
“He’s a great friend and we always look forward to catching up. It’s a pain that they happen to be as good as they are and they happen to be in our conference and a rival, but I don’t think that will change as far as how much we’ll enjoy seeing one another and catching up.”
The Mountaineers will take on Marshall on Wednesday, October 18, with kickoff set for 7:00. The game can be seen on ESPN+.
