The No. 9 Marshall Men’s Soccer’s next match is the highly anticipated Mountain State Derby against the No. 10 West Virginia Mountaineers and will take place Friday, Oct. 31, in Morgantown, West Virginia. Since 2007, both programs have equal ground record wise with three wins, three losses and three draws.

The Herd currently sits 8-1-5 on the season, 5-1-1 in conference play, and in second place in the standings behind the No. 25 Kentucky Wildcats while the Mountaineers have a record of 10-3-2 on the season, 5-2-0 in conference play, and ranks third for the Sun Belt.

Marshall and WVU have also faced each other for the past two years in the finals of the Men’s Soccer Sun Belt Conference Tournament, where each team has split the wins. Marshall won in 2023, and WVU won in 2024 in an overtime penalty shootout 5-4.

The Herd is coming off of a 0-0 draw on the road against the Old Dominion Monarchs. 

“Tough one tonight. I thought the uneven, stop-start nature of the game made getting into rhythm tough,” head coach Chris Grassie said after the ODU game. “Credit to our guys though as they had to deal with a lot of crazy stuff tonight, and they kept their heads.

“I think our closers did a great job when they went on,” Grassie said. “They added more attacking energy and created a lot of chances in the last 20 minutes. A few times, we missed passes to be even more dangerous in that period, but overall, they tilted the match massively in our favor.”

Marshall goalkeeper Eddie DeMarco was named the Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Week.

WVU is coming off of a 1-0 road loss against the University of Kentucky when the Wildcats broke the 0-0 deadlock with a goal in the 72nd minute.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+ and will start at 7 p.m.

Nate Harrah can be contacted at [email protected].