ODU Men's Soccer Plays No. 9 Marshall To A Scoreless Tie

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – For most of 90 minutes Sunday night, the Old Dominion men’s soccer team outplayed the nation’s ninth-ranked team. But, unable to capitalize on several scoring chances, the Monarchs were forced to settle for a 0-0 tie with Marshall.

ODU (5-5-5 overall, 1-3-3 SBC) outshot Marshall, 7-0, through the game’s first 75 minutes. Marshall outshot ODU, 5-0, in the final, frantic 15 minutes. 

Marshall (8-1-5, 5-1-1) is a perennial national power that in the last five years has won an NCAA national title and finished second in the NCAA Tournament.

A lot of coaches might have celebrated a tie with the Herd, but not ODU Head Coach Tennant McVea, who is in the second year of rebuilding the Monarch program.

He said the final score “left me with a little bit of mixed feelings.

“I’m really proud of the effort the boys put in tonight on the defensive side of the ball. I thought we were in control of the game and probably had the better chances” to score.

“Marshall is an extremely good football team and we knew tonight was going to be a difficult matchup,” he added. “But I thought we maybe, probably, could have scored one of our chances in the second half.

“So, I’m disappointed not to pick up all three points. But I’m really proud of the effort the boys put in tonight on both sides of the ball.”

ODU’s Miguel Menendez had two scoring chances, including one with 21:50 to go that Marshall goalkeeper Eddie DeMarco had to dive to save. Lewis Rourke, Michael Eberle, Jake Lane, Abdou Magib-So and Micah Wayland all had shots for ODU.

“I thought Miguel’s shot in the second half could have gone in,” McVea said. “The keeper really had to make a good save.”

ODU was coming off a 1-0 loss at No. 10 West Virginia.

“You’ve got to execute in the big moments against big opposition. And I think that’s where we’ve let ourselves down the last couple of weeks,” McVea said.

 “Because every game we’ve played in, we’ve been in and around it. So we’ve just got to execute in the big moments.”

ODU goalkeeper Michael Statham, the 6-foot-4 senior from Stockport, England, did execute in Sunday’s big moments.

At 14:05, Marshall’s Keaviano Francis took a shot from in front of the net that Statham knocked away with his right hand. Then, with 1:16 left in the game, he batted away another shot that appeared to be headed high into the net.

“In some ways, Michael’s had a tough year,” McVea said. “He knows it. He’s got really high standards.

“These last two games have been fantastic for him. Even in defeat against West Virginia, he kept us in the game because we didn’t play well. I’m proud of him. Michael’s mentality to get to this point, to fight his way back after feeling a little bad about himself, that shows growth.

“I’m proud of him for that. He was fantastic tonight.”

ODU next plays at James Madison on Friday before returning home on Tuesday, Nov. 4, to host No. 25 Kentucky in its final home game of the season on Senior Night. Kentucky and West Virginia were tied with Marshall for the Sun Belt lead going into the day, with each having 5-1 records. Kentucky and West Virginia squared off against each other tonight and the Wildcats came out with a 1-0 victory to go top of the SBC.

“That’s a massive game for both teams,” McVea said of the TowneBank Royal Rivlary clash at JMU. “It’s a local rivalry. We got the best of them last season and I know that (coach) Paul (Zazenski) is going to have them prepared for this one.

“So we’ve got to go about our business and make sure we’re really prepared for a big game.”