Wheeling, W.Va,. - Wednesday night had a chill in the air as late season soccer made its way to Bishop Schmitt Field. The Wheeling Men's Soccer team (6-8-1, 6-6-1) looked to heat things up in the Mountain East Conference (MEC) playoff race. Unfortunately, the Cardinals couldn't find the net as they fell 2-0 to the Mountain Lions and they have to wait a few more days for another chance at clinching a playoff berth.
The Cardinals outshot the Mountain Lions throughout the match, and that was the story of the first half. The Cardinals outshot Concord 9-5 over those first 45 minutes, but had nothing to show for it. After going back and forth early on,
Richard Afolayanka would take the first Wheeling shot in the 7th minute, but was denied by the Concord goalkeeper. The teams would go shot for shot with each other over the first 20 minutes with each taking two shots and putting both on net. Senior goalkeeper
Austin Aaron did his part, making two saves on those two shots as that was all that Concord put on net during the first half. The Cardinals would get one more big scoring chance in the 26th minute when
Salem Mwelwa had a shot in front of the net but was once again denied. The teams went into the locker room with the game sitting at 0-0 and both offenses looking to get something going.
Concord would be the first to take that opportunity in the second half, scoring the first goal in the 49th minute of the game to take a 1-0 lead. During that same time frame, Wheeling would put two shots on net courtesy of
Diego Buenano and
Sam Clark but again both were denied and Concord held the lead. The Cardinals had plenty of opportunities on offense getting off seven of the next eight shots over 20 minutes of play but still couldn't find the net. Concord would score a big insurance goal in the 79th minute and took a 2-0 lead with just over 10 to play. Wheeling kept shooting, and outshot the mountain lions 17-5 in the half but just weren't able to find the break they needed. Concord would win the game 2-0 and dropped wheeling to 6-6-1 in MEC play.
The Cardinals were led by freshman
Diego Buenano who finished with seven shots putting three on goal. Junior
Richard Afolayanka followed him up with five shots, but only put one of those on net.
Salem Mwelwa and
Christian Ruud each got off three shots and
Armando Loynaz added two shots to round out the offense.
Austin Aaron got his fourth straight start in net and ended up making five saves on seven shots faced. West Liberty was not in action on Wednesday night, so Wheeling will have another chance at clinching a playoff berth on Saturday when they host Davis & Elkins.
The Wheeling University Men's Soccer team returns to action on Saturday, October 22nd, when they take on Davis & Elkins with kickoff at 1:00 p.m.
