MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Old Dominion men’s soccer battled hard against West Virginia but fell 1-0 at the Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium on Wednesday night. Senior goalkeeper Michael Statham made eight saves to help keep the Monarchs in striking distance throughout the whole game.
“Very disappointed in the way the game went tonight,” said ODU head coach Tennant McVea. “We were second to things in transition too many times and didn’t execute in the final third.”
Neither team registered a shot on target until the 21st minute of action when WVU’s (10-2-2, 5-1 SBC) Ethan Daks Dekel tested ODU’s (5-5-4, 1-3-2 SBC) Statham with a shot aimed toward the middle of the net, but he made the stop. The ODU team captain made two more saves two minutes later, one from a shot by Pablo Pozos aimed directly at him and the second by Tristian Pusztahegyi that went towards the bottom left of the net to keep ODU level.
Possibly ODU’s best chance of the night came in the 33rd minute when Jamie Wynne got on the end of some good build up play from Barrett Saul who found Marcelo Randolf out wide. He found Miguel Menedez on the right wing and slotted the ball back to Randolf making a run into the box. The sophomore from Lyngs, Denmark crossed it across the goal and found Wynne in the middle of the box, but his right-footed shot was denied by WVU’s Marc Bonnaire. After a string of substitutions from both sides and one more chance from ODU’s Micah Wayland that went off target the Mountaineers found the opening goal. In the 44th minute Felix Ewald scored from a double-assist by Isaac Scheer and Nicolas Scargie to go into the half up 1-0.
The first chance of the second half went to the home team, when in the 54th minute Marcus Caldeira would strike towards goal and get denied by Statham. Scheer tried to test Statham again in the 56th but came up empty. Pozos would get WVU’s insurance goal hopes rejected again as well by the Monarch goalkeeper 11 minutes later. Evan Watt would get ODU’s last chance at goal a minute later from a free kick attempt. Matthias Krohnstad lofted in a high cross towards the far post and Watt’s head connected but couldn’t generate enough power to really test Bonnaire.
Statham, a native of Stockport, England would deny WVU two more times before the final whistle would sound. WVU’s Sammie Walker fired a shot toward the bottom right of the net in the 77th. Caldeira would get another chance at goal but also get denied in the 79th.
“West Virginia is a good side and against good sides you have to take your chances when they present themselves and not make mistakes in critical moments,” said McVea. “We’ll take the experience and move onto Marshall this Sunday.”
The Monarchs finished with three shots, two on goal, and had two corner kicks. WVU had 14 shots and nine on target, they took 15 corners. Teagan Dunne, Jett Aktan, Abdou Magib-So, and Watt all played the full game.
ODU’s Statham made eight saves in 90 minutes and WVU’s Bonnaire made two saves.
UP NEXT:
Old Dominion heads back to Norfolk to play #12 Marshall on Sunday, Oct. 26 at the ODU Soccer Complex.