No. 7 West Virginia left Halloween night with its seniors honored and undefeated conference record in tact on Thursday.
The Mountaineers honored 10 seniors ahead of their home match before starting all of them alongside junior All-American forward Marcus Caldeira. The seniors played 25 minutes together before Dan Stratford’s first substitution.
WVU kept the pressure on in the early minutes, allowing Coastal Carolina only moments of Chanticleer offense near the halfway line and one fast break opportunity that ended in a catch by Lorenzo Nunez in his first of three saves.
Offensively, though, the Mountaineers were stagnant early as well, shooting just two shots in the first 36 minutes with none on goal before taking three more in the final minutes, with two on goal in one possession in the 43rd and 44th minutes.
Despite the scoreless first half, though, the Mountaineers were able to get things going in the second half. Caldeira kicked things off with the first shot of the half in the 47th minute and hit the right post on a free kick in the 49th.
That pressure stayed consistent throughout the second half, with the Mountaineers finishing with 18 total shots to Coastal Carolina’s seven in the match, but West Virginia could not get any more shots on goal after the end of the first half.
WVU took eight shots in the last 20 minutes of the match alone. It also had a massive advantage over the Chanticleers in corner kick opportunities, gaining 13 while allowing just one. Even so, West Virginia failed to score for the first time since Sept. 27 against Kentucky.
West Virginia maintained a record of 10-1-5 and 5-0-3 in the Sun Belt Conference with the draw. The Chanticleers are now 3-9-3 on the year.
The Mountaineers will close out their regular season against the Sun Belt’s only other undefeated team, the Marshall Thundering Herd. The match will kick off at 7:15 p.m. at Hoops Family Field in Huntington, W. Va.
Photo by Korey Moore, Blue Gold Sports
