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The first weekend of the season produced mixed results for West Virginia’s men’s soccer team.
In a pair of tough nonconference matches at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, WVU was knocked off by No. 16 UC Santa Barbara 2-0 Friday before regrouping to defeat Buffalo 1-0 Sunday.
Sunday’s victory over the Bulls became official with just 55 seconds remaining in double overtime, courtesy of true freshman Peabo Doue.
Doue beat Bulls’ keeper Nick Fetterman with a left-foot blast to the far bottom post, which preceded a mobbing from teammates during the celebration.
Classmates Travis Pittman and Nathan Adams were each credited with an assist.
“When it left my foot I thought I hit it well,” Doue said. “I definitely left a good note on the ball.”
The Mountaineers outshot the Bulls 11-3, but Doue’s shot was just the third attempt on goal for either side.
Pittman had a pair of first-half shots, one of which on goal. His attempt that missed wide 25 minutes into the game was one of the Mountaineers’ better opportunities until Doue capitalized.
Lucas Bassan had the only shot on goal for Buffalo.
“They were happy with it at 0-0 and we were trying to push the tempo and get a goal,” said West Virginia head coach Marlon LeBlanc.
WVU junior goalkeeper Zach Johnson recorded his 22nd career clean sheet but was largely untested for most of the contest.
Thirty-seven fouls were whistled in the match which saw eight yellow cards and one red card given out.
“We’re not going to let anyone bully us, especially on our home field,” said WVU midfielder Gift Maworere. “We will play as physical as we can and let them know they’re not going to push us around.”
Things got controversial when Maworere was the recipient of two elbows from Buffalo’s Mateo Escobar in less than two minutes.
Maworere’s face was bleeding, forcing him to switch jerseys, which visibly angered LeBlanc.
“It wasn’t a dive or a flop or anything. I just felt an elbow and it hurt,” Maworere said.
Escobar was ultimately given a red card, which forced Buffalo to play the final 25:29 of the match a man down.
In WVU’s season opener, goals from forwards Waid Ibrahim and David Walker led UC Santa Barbara to a 2-0 victory.
Despite a raucous crowd of 2,938 – the highest attendance for a men’s game in stadium history – and numerous quality scoring chances, the Mountaineers were unable to put anything in the back of the net against the Gauchos.
“You’d be surprised to look at the scoreboard and see that we lost that game. I thought we were the better team,” LeBlanc said.
West Virginia defender Raymon Gaddis was happy to play in front of a packed house but upset that his team didn’t give them much to cheer about.
“I appreciate everyone who came out tonight and I felt like we disappointed our fans,” he said.
Ibrahim’s goal came 14:50 into the contest, courtesy of an assist from Michael Nonni.
Just over five minutes later, the Mountaineers nearly evened things up, but Gaddis’ shot missed wide left.
The Gauchos added insurance in the second half when Walker beat Johnson at the 64:50 mark.
The Mountaineers outshot Santa Barbara 7-6, but Johnson and UCSB keeper Sam Hayden were each credited with just one save.
“I feel like we outplayed them but the scoreboard tells different so they were the better team overall,” Gaddis said.
Senior Jason Bristol had the lone shot on goal for WVU.
Tune in as the boys take on the challenge of breaking down all the recent Formula 1 news from the past couple of weeks. With the final race of the season just around the corner, we reflect on the Las Vegas and Qatar Grands Prix before sharing our final predictions for the season. Of course, … Listen Now >>Keeping Up With Formula 1: Championships, Controversy & Cadillac
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