MORGANTOWN, W.Va (BVM) — There is an old saying in regard to rivalry games – throw the records out the window. That sentiment rang true yet again when the No. 8 ranked Marshall Thundering Herd traveled to Morgantown to take on the West Virginia Mountaineers in the first regular season contest between the two programs in 17 years.

Coming into the game on Wednesday night the two teams looked to be trending in opposite directions. Marshall, accompanied by their top 10 position in the national rankings had won three in a row and were coming off a 1-0 victory over No. 11 ranked Kentucky. While West Virginia had lost two of their last three and had the look of a team trying to find its footing under a new head coach. Yet due to the intensity of this rivalry the outlook on this game was anything but concrete. Add in the fact that the two coaches, Chris Grassie for Marshall and Dan Stratford for West Virginia, were together for three years at the University of Charleston in the state’s capital and you had all the potential to have a program defining moment for West Virginia men’s soccer.

In the opening 45 minutes it looked like a game between a top ten team in the country and an unranked opponent. Marshall dominated possession and routinely found themselves in the attacking third. Junior midfielder Vinicius Fernandes had two early chances inside of 10 minutes but both shots were easily stopped by West Virginia goalkeeper Steven Tekesky. In the first half the senior Tekesky was forced to make five saves as the Thundering Herd were able to find space on the right side of the Mountaineer defense.

For West Virginia, Dan Stratford decided against starting the game with a true natural striker, electing instead to go with a trio of midfielders to lead the line for WVU. The lack of goalscoring forward was apparent in the first half as the Mountaineers struggled to gain possession at times and offered little in front of goal tallying just one shot in the first 45 minutes of the match.

Coming out of the break Stratford made two changes to the starting lineup that made an immediate impact on the outlook of the game for West Virginia. The first year head coach turned to two local boys to provide a certain amount of energy and spark that was missing in the first half. Morgantown native Elijah Borneo replaced Kyle Lehnert on the right side of the Mountaineer back line and brought on Ike Swiger, who went to high school 20 minutes from the West Virginia campus, to give the Mountaineers a legitimate goal scoring threat.

The two players left the mark on the game almost as soon as they came onto the field. Borneo held firm in defense on the right side for West Virginia while also providing some attacking prowess giving the Mountaineers only their second recorded shot with a left footed strike in the 50th minute but it was saved by Marshall keeper Oliver Semmle.

Then in the 65th minute with the game still in a scoreless draw sophomore midfielder Luke McCormick picked up the ball from just inside Marshall’s half of the field. The English midfielder bobbed and weaved his way through multiple Thundering Herd defenders before delivering a gorgeous ball into the path of Swiger who calmly poked his toe at the ball as it skipped of the surface pass Semmle and into the back of the net to give the Mountaineers a 1-0 lead. That advantage would hold for the rest of the 90 minutes en route to a West Virginia victory.

The contribution from substitutes coming off the bench is something that Stratford has tried to be open and transparent about with his players.

“We’ve preached to them about how important depth is going to be this season,” the WVU head coach said. “I hope, I genuinely hope, that that not only shows the starters but the guys that came on and had a great impact on the game how valuable everyone is in this compact, condensed schedule.”

Stratford continued by saying how this can be a lesson for those who may not always be in the game to start.

 “I hope that this is again another step in the right direction for the group in that sense that okay if Elijah or Ike doesn’t start they know that there is going to be an opportunity for them.”

The Mountaineer head coach was adamant about wanting to continue this rivalry as it represents a great opportunity for both programs to improve their resumes with a strong out of conference opponent. As for West Virginia’s current prospectus Stratford was clear about how he thinks a game against a quality team like Marshall makes them a better squad.

“It helps if they’re as good as that every time we play them,” Stratford said. “We still have progress, we still have a ways to go to get to where they are. We aspire to be a top ten team. Again, that win is definitely going to help but we know we’re going to improve upon and the group is going to get stronger.”

Despite the massive win and what it means for his goals and building West Virginia into a national contender Stratford was a little emotional in the postgame talking about his relationship with Marshall head man Chris Grassie.

“I have a lot, obviously, a ton of admiration for Chris, the staff, and what they’ve done there,” Stratford said. “It’s just more coincidence than anything that it happens to be, arguably, one of our most bitter rivals so there’s that element of things. But if I have to be honest with 10 seconds counting down on the clock I felt bad that I was going to have to go and show my condolences to one of my really good friends.”

Stratford continued that mixture of emotions by saying, “It’s never nice to beat one of your friends. It’s nice to beat Marshall and it’s difficult to tie the two things. So it was a little bit of a mixture of emotions when the whistle went to end the game.

Instead of making it about Stratford versus Grassie, the Mountaineer head coach was more focused on how the win would impact the players confidence heading into the stretch run of the season.

“When you see the guys’ response when you see the crowd and the interaction there and just how much it means to the players that was when I really started to enjoy it and appreciate what it was we did.”

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