West Liberty, W. Va. – The Wheeling University Men's Soccer team (3-4, 2-3) traveled to take on their rivals West Liberty University on Wednesday night. It was back and forth early on, but the Cardinals would end up falling to the Hilltoppers 3-1. After going goal-for-goal with West Liberty early on, Wheeling couldn't keep it going for the entire match.

The scoring started right away as West Liberty got on the board in just the seventh minute of the game. Bernardo Vilchis came up to attempt a Penalty Kick and shot it by Wheeling goalkeeper Tyler Serman to give West Liberty a 1-0 lead. It didn't take long for Wheeling to respond as Richard Afolayanka got control of the ball in the 12^th minute. He found his way past the Hilltopper defense and scored his fourth goal of the season, and the game was tied at 1-1.

The back and forth continued as West Liberty was back on the board just seven minutes later. This time, Vitor Otsuka took a pass from Liam Toman to put West Liberty out in front 2-1. Shots were hard to come by over the final 25 minutes of the first half with only three combined between the two teams. For Wheeling, Afolayanka and Malte Fredin each got a shot off, but both missed the mark and the teams went into halftime with West Liberty leading the game 2-1. Wheeling outshot West Liberty 5-3 in that first half, but the efforts were not reflected on the scoreboard.

In the second half, both defenses went to work as Wheeling was trying to come back from the one-run deficit. After not getting many offensive opportunities for most of the second half, Wheeling came up with a big chance in the 84^th minute. Wheeling's Santiago Calle sent a corner kick to Afolayanka, who headed the ball wide left of the net. Just a few seconds later, Afolayanka had another shot, but this time sent the kick wide. With the chance thwarted, West Liberty would close the game outscoring in the 89^th minute to bring the game to its final score of 3-1.

It was the third straight loss for Wheeling, but they continued to fight all the way through the match. After outshooting West Liberty in the first half, Wheeling would end up being outshot in the game 9-7. The Cardinals were not very efficient, putting just two of those shots on net which eventually led to their downfall. Of the seven shots taken by the Cardinals, Afolayanka was responsible for four of those shots, with only one landing on net. Sherman allowed three goals on the day and made three saves in the loss as Wheeling falls to 3-4 on the season and 2-3 in MEC play.

The Wheeling University Men's Soccer team is back in action on Sunday when they go on the road to face The University of Charleston at 4 PM.