Ninety minutes of regulation, two 10-minute overtimes and 12 penalty kicks decided the Sun Belt Champion, West Virginia University.

Marshall University Men’s Soccer falls just short of back-to-back Sun Belt Championships due to penalty kicks. The game took place Sunday, Nov. 17, at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia at 1 p.m. 

“Yeah, very happy. Fully deserving over the course of not just the 90 minutes of play, but several chances over the course of the overtime periods as well,” WVU head coach Dan Stratford said. “We were hungry and excited to give a fair reflection of the team we really are, and I think with the very good Marshall team – I thought we were fully deserving of the result today.”

The game ended in a draw during regulation and overtime, so with NCAA postseason rules, the match would be decided by penalty kicks.

“I feel for our guys. We played really well. It was just an inch here or there,” Marshall head coach Chris Grassie said. “In the penalty competition, Aleksa got a hand to two. Usually, those don’t go in the back of the net. When you get down to penalties, it really is a coin flip sometimes.”

In penalty kicks, each team made their first five to send it to extra kicks. During WVU’s first attempt, Marshall goalkeeper Alexsa Janic was able to get his hands on the ball, but the ball ended up bouncing towards the goal, giving WVU the first penalty kick. 

Both teams were then perfect for the next five kicks. In the 6th round, WVU’s Dylan Dromers made his attempt. Joao Roberto then fired the Herd’s sixth attempt, but Marc Bonnaire got a hand on the shot and saved it, giving WVU the victory. 

Between the regular season and postseason, Marshall and West Virginia University only hit the net one time. At first, it looked like WVU took the lead as Marcus Caldeira headed the ball to the back of the net, but he was called offsides, so the goal did not count.

“Two hundred minutes and no one could score a goal between the two sides,” Grassie said. “It was very, very close. A rivalry game – both teams are ranked quite high up, but it wouldn’t matter if we were 150 and 160 in the rankings, I think it would still be that tense and that exciting.”

After the match, Janjic, defender Alex Bamford and forward Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos, who led the team in goals this season, were named to the all-tournament team.

The Herd will start their NCAA tournament ranked as the 13 seed. They will face the winner between the Furman University Paladins and University of North Carolina Tar Heels. That game will be played at Dorrance Field, Chapell Hill, North Carolina, Thursday Nov. 21.

“There are some really good teams, but teams we’re excited to play,” Grassie said. “We got Furman and UNC. It’ll be a tough game. We’ve played UNC before on a championship run one time before. We’ve played Georgetown on a championship run. Then NC State or Charlotte if they beat Georgetown. It’s all exciting games.”

The Herd returns to Hoops Family Field Sunday, Nov. 24, to face the winner of the UNC and Furman game with the match scheduled to start at 2 p.m.

Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected].