The No. 5 ranked Marshall Men’s Soccer fought back for a draw against the James Madison University Dukes, making their season record 7-1-2 and 2-0-1 in conference play. The game took place on Friday, Oct. 4, at Hoops Family Field.

“It was a top 10 matchup for sure,” head coach Chris Grassie said in a post game interview. “Credit to Paul and JMU: they’ve done a great job, and they’re a tough team. We have to cut out the mistakes. We made too many that led to two goals, but that fightback, that is championship spirit right there.”

“The guys are a bit disappointed not to get the result, but Marshall away is a difficult game to play. I thought our first half was one of our best halves of the year,” JMU head coach Paul Zazenski said in his post-game interview. “We just didn’t see out the game in the second half, and we will use that experience to be better moving forward.”

The game started at 7:15 p.m., and within 14 minutes, JMU’s Evan Southern beat Marshall goalkeeper Dan Rose and fired a shot on goal with it being saved by a Marshall defender. However, the ball rebounded right back to Southern again, and he fired the ball again this time scoring a goal making the score 1-0 in favor of JMU. 

In the 42nd minute, JMU was able to get a fastbreak on the pitch. A JMU attacker and Rose were in a 1-on-1 battle. Rose was able to win the battle with a save closing out the first half of the match.

In the 55th minute, the Dukes capitalized on a mistake from Marshall. After the Herd played the ball back in their own side of the field, JMU’s Josiah Blanton took possession and was able to score, making the score 2-0.

In the 70th minute, Marshall was on the attack. The ball bounced around the pitch and landed at Marco Silva’s feet. Silva made a backwards shot on goal that deflected off of a Dukes defender and found its way past the JMU goalkeeper for the Herd’s first goal of the contest, making the score 2-1.

With less than four minutes to go in the match, Marshall was battling for the equalizing goal. After a setup from Taimu Okiyoshi, Tarik Pannholzer sent a pass to Joao Roberto who scored a goal past the JMU goalkeeper and tied the game

During the game, Silva registered his fourth goal of the season, tying Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos for the team lead. 

Marshall outshot JMU 13-7 in the contest, with each team recording four shots on goal.

There was one yellow card in the first half of the game, against JMU, and there were three yellow cards in the second: one against JMU and two against Marshall. There were no red cards or ejections.

The Thundering Herd faces the University of Central Florida Knights to continue conference play Friday, Oct. 11, at the UCF Soccer and Track Stadium in Orlando Florida. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected].