Wheeling, W. Va. - The 2025 Wheeling University Men's Soccer team (0-1, 0-0) opened their 2025 season in front of their home crowd at Bishop Schmitt Field on Thursday night. The Cardinals and Vulcans battled throughout the night, but in the end it was CAL-U that would end with the upper hand, beating Wheeling 3-0. Both teams had plenty of opportunities throughout the night, with Wheeling winning the shot game 12-11, but the Cardinals could not find the back of the net in the effort. 

As the Cardinals took the field, it was clear that they were going with an aggressive style of play early on. The Cardinals would control the time of possession and nearly snuck the ball by the Vulcan defense in the eighth minute. Otto Amesty made a run down the sideline and sent a shot to the top of the net, but CAL-U's AJ Visco came up with the save to keep the game scoreless. The Cardinals would get a corner kick opportunity just 10 seconds later, and Timbrell sent the ball towards the net, but was denied by Visco once again in the ninth minute. CAL-U's first shot of the day came in the 12th minute, but was off the net thanks to the work of the Cardinal's back line. Pablo Prieto, Joergen Bjerkreim, and Aiden Morales allowed just one shot on net over the first 45-minutes of play, and just four total shots during the half, creating opportunities for their offensive attack. 

Wheeling had a big scoring chance in the game's 27th minute, when Jon-Michael Gordon worked his way around the Vulcan defense and had a nearly one-on-one opportunity with the goalkeeper. However, Visco would win the battle, saving Gordon's shot and keeping it a 0-0 game. Wheeling was able to hold the Vulcans off the board until the 43rd minute, when they set up a corner kick opportunity. Jacob Gretz would send the ball towards the net, and Eduardo Miranda would find the bottom right corner of the net. It gave CAL-U a 1-0 advantage on the scoreboard, which they would hold heading into the halftime. Wheeling would set up one final corner kick in the 44th minute, and Prieto would send a shot that ended up going wide as the Cardinals headed for the locker room. 

Wheeling would outshoot CAL-U 5-4 in the first half and looked to continue that aggressive style of play as the teams emerged for the second half. It would be a half of corner kicks for the Cardinals, with 11 of their 14 in the game coming over the final 45 minutes of play. The first of those kicks came in the 48th minute and Josh Timbrell tried to capitalize but was once again denied by Visco. Andoni Pipaon would add another shot on a corner kick attempt in the 51st minute before CAL-U got back on the board. In the 56th minute, Ben Sauerlander would get the Vulcans on the board on a corner kick from Jaime Marcelo Espinosa. With the Cardinals now trailing by two, they would get several corner kick opportunities in the next 10 minutes as they tried to end their shutout.  

The first of four corner kick opportunities came in the 67th minute as the Cardinals attacked the Vulcan net. Wheeling would get two shot attempts off those four corner kicks, with Prieto and Ruesca Martinez each getting shots off during the attempts. However, it would be CAL-U that got on the board one final time in the 73rd minute as Brady Olsen found the net to make it a 3-0 game. The Cardinals would set up for their final corner kick of the night in the 84th minute and it was the closest they came to capitalizing. The ball found the head of Gordon, who sent the shot on net and was denied one last time by Visco to round out the day. Luka Martinaj would take one more shot in the game's final 30 seconds, but it went wide as the Cardinals fell 3-0. 

Leading the way for the Cardinals was Jon-Michael Gordon, who finished with three shots, putting two of those on goals. Gordon missed the entire 2024 season due to injury and is looking to return to his 2023 form that saw him make the MEC's All-Freshman team. Josh Timbrell would add two shots of his own, putting two on net, while Pablo Prieto took two shots to round out the day. Daniel Delo got the start in net for the Cardinals, making four saves on seven shots faced to round out the day. 

The Wheeling University Men's Soccer team returns to action on Sunday, September 7th, when they take on West Liberty with kick-off at 3:30 PM.