Wheeling W. VA- The Wheeling Men's soccer team will be in front of the home crowd once again this Wednesday at 7 PM. Last time out, the Cardinals dropped a close one to the University of Charleston on the road. This game against Charleston would be the first of back-to-back games against the two top teams in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) opponent. Even though it was a hard-fought game, they lost to the Golden Eagles 3-1.
In the first half, the two MEC teams battled hard as the Cardinals kept the Golden Eagles on their toes. Then in the eighth minute of the game, Charleston would get their first goal as Luis Maestre scored giving them a 1-0 lead. Throughout the first half, the Golden Eagles outshot the Cardinals 10-2. However, out of those two shots from the Cardinals, one of them found the net as Hugo Rodriguez tied the game 1-1 going into halftime.
Even though Wheeling did not get off many shots in the first half there was one star which was goalkeeper Harry Firth. He only allowed one goal in the first half as he made three saves on four shots. The goal for the Cardinals in the second half was to get more shots off and they would do just that early in the second half as they took three of the first five shots in the half and putting one of them in the goal.
The two teams went back and forth for the first 25 minutes of the second half, but the Golden Eagles would breakthrough at the 71st-minute mark when Adrian Gamacho scored, giving them a 2-1 lead. Then shortly after the Golden Eagles scored another goal which grew their lead to 3-1. Charleston would hold on to this lead as they would defeat the Cardinals, and this loss would drop Wheeling to 2-4 in conference play.
With the loss, Wheeling now sits in seventh place in the MEC, sitting a game behind West Liberty for sixth place. The Cardinals have some work to do if they want to get into the MEC Playoff picture, but they are trying to play spoiler with the game against MEC leading Davis & Elkins on Wednesday.
The Match-Up
Wheeling has a strong history against the Senators dating back to 2002, with the Cardinals going 7-7-3 against Davis & Elkins during that time. When playing at home, the Cardinals have fared slightly better against the Senators than when they are on the road, going 4-5 at Bishop Schmitt Field against Davis & Elkins.
The last matchup between these two teams was April 16, 2021, as the Senators defeated the Cardinals 4-2. Even in the tough loss goalkeeper, Josh Zimmerman made a pair of saves in his final game as a Cardinal. The goals were scored by Richard Afolayanka and Ceasar Coello. which would be the only points scored for Wheeling.
The Details
Kickoff for Wednesday night's game is set for 7 PM at Bishop Schmitt Field. You can watch the game live by clicking HERE or follow along with Live Stats by clicking HERE.
