Post by rainman on Nov 29, 2007 6:50:29 GMT -5
WVU men win NCAA soccer opener over Virginia, 1-0
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— Dan Stratford stood staring straight ahead, the soccer ball on the ground, a picket fence of defenders in front of him, about to unleash a free kick from maybe 20 yards out, a kick that he knew could well carry every hope and dream West Virginia’s men’s soccer team has entertained this year with it.
His Mountaineer teammate, Andy Wright, had been tripped at that spot and now, in this game in which goals were as scarce as touchdowns in a Pittsburgh Steelers-Miami Monday night football game, he knew it could make a difference.
The clock showed 39:55 left in either WVU’s or Virginia’s season.
He looked past the defenders, found the goalkeeper and took note of his position, just as he had a day earlier as he practiced exactly that kick almost to excess. Goalkeeper Dan Louisgnau was giving him something to shoot at.
“He was a little off center,” Stratford recalled. “He showed me the left corner.”
Stratford approached and kicked the ball high and hard, aiming at the upper left corner.
“I started celebrating before it crossed the line,” Stratford admitted. He knew the goalkeeper could never get there.
“I’d have looked pretty silly if it hit the post,” he said.
It didn’t.
It rippled into the netting and gave WVU a 1-0 lead that it would make stand up the rest of the night as the team made history, becoming the first Mountaineer men’s soccer team to advance to the Sweet 16.
That victory over the Cavaliers sets up a Sunday showdown in Winston-Salem, N.C., against No. 2 seed Wake Forest, also of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
It is a daunting challenge.
“We are playing arguably the best team in the country on the road,” said coach Marlon LeBlanc. “But I would not want to take any team other than this team to Winston-Salem.”
LeBlanc is in his second season as coach at West Virginia and has high expectations. He bristled when asked if the goal was to finally get past the second round of the NCAAs.
“Our goal,” he answered, “is to win the national championship.”
Simple as that.
“We’ve raised the bar here. A year ago the goal was to get to the NCAAs. That’s not good enough anymore,” he said.
Through the first half of this game it didn’t seem as though WVU would manage to advance. Certainly, it would seem the Mountaineers should have been dominating a Virginia team that made the NCAA field more on its reputation than on its current ability, having produced no more than a 1-5-2 record within its conference.
But the ghosts of soccer past were carrying Virginia, a team that has made the tournament 27 straight years, the longest current streak, and that won national titles in 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994.
The ’90s, however, are gone, and so is Virginia’s dominance.
The second half proved it.
“We worked our socks off in the second half,” LeBlanc noted.
The Mountaineers were getting to more loose balls, tackling harder, running faster even.
Ten minutes in, Virginia made the one mistake WVU needed, putting Stratford in scoring position.
“He’s fantastic in a dead-ball situation, a real, real threat for us,” Wright said of Stratford.
With the Mountaineers, one goal is about all they need.
“It’s hard to beat us if we have the lead,” LeBlanc noted.
The stat sheet shows that. Ten of the Mountaineers’ 14 victories have been by 1-0 scores.
“I don’t know that anyone wants to see West Virginia at this time because we are so stout on defense,” LeBlanc said.
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN— Dan Stratford stood staring straight ahead, the soccer ball on the ground, a picket fence of defenders in front of him, about to unleash a free kick from maybe 20 yards out, a kick that he knew could well carry every hope and dream West Virginia’s men’s soccer team has entertained this year with it.
His Mountaineer teammate, Andy Wright, had been tripped at that spot and now, in this game in which goals were as scarce as touchdowns in a Pittsburgh Steelers-Miami Monday night football game, he knew it could make a difference.
The clock showed 39:55 left in either WVU’s or Virginia’s season.
He looked past the defenders, found the goalkeeper and took note of his position, just as he had a day earlier as he practiced exactly that kick almost to excess. Goalkeeper Dan Louisgnau was giving him something to shoot at.
“He was a little off center,” Stratford recalled. “He showed me the left corner.”
Stratford approached and kicked the ball high and hard, aiming at the upper left corner.
“I started celebrating before it crossed the line,” Stratford admitted. He knew the goalkeeper could never get there.
“I’d have looked pretty silly if it hit the post,” he said.
It didn’t.
It rippled into the netting and gave WVU a 1-0 lead that it would make stand up the rest of the night as the team made history, becoming the first Mountaineer men’s soccer team to advance to the Sweet 16.
That victory over the Cavaliers sets up a Sunday showdown in Winston-Salem, N.C., against No. 2 seed Wake Forest, also of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
It is a daunting challenge.
“We are playing arguably the best team in the country on the road,” said coach Marlon LeBlanc. “But I would not want to take any team other than this team to Winston-Salem.”
LeBlanc is in his second season as coach at West Virginia and has high expectations. He bristled when asked if the goal was to finally get past the second round of the NCAAs.
“Our goal,” he answered, “is to win the national championship.”
Simple as that.
“We’ve raised the bar here. A year ago the goal was to get to the NCAAs. That’s not good enough anymore,” he said.
Through the first half of this game it didn’t seem as though WVU would manage to advance. Certainly, it would seem the Mountaineers should have been dominating a Virginia team that made the NCAA field more on its reputation than on its current ability, having produced no more than a 1-5-2 record within its conference.
But the ghosts of soccer past were carrying Virginia, a team that has made the tournament 27 straight years, the longest current streak, and that won national titles in 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994.
The ’90s, however, are gone, and so is Virginia’s dominance.
The second half proved it.
“We worked our socks off in the second half,” LeBlanc noted.
The Mountaineers were getting to more loose balls, tackling harder, running faster even.
Ten minutes in, Virginia made the one mistake WVU needed, putting Stratford in scoring position.
“He’s fantastic in a dead-ball situation, a real, real threat for us,” Wright said of Stratford.
With the Mountaineers, one goal is about all they need.
“It’s hard to beat us if we have the lead,” LeBlanc noted.
The stat sheet shows that. Ten of the Mountaineers’ 14 victories have been by 1-0 scores.
“I don’t know that anyone wants to see West Virginia at this time because we are so stout on defense,” LeBlanc said.
