 "Photo: SHOLTEN SINGER")
The Marshall University men’s soccer team earned second place in the Conference USA Tournament in Tulsa, Okla., on Sunday.
The Herd capped off the tournament weekend with a 3-0 loss against C-USA regular season champions Tulsa. For the Golden Hurricane it was its third straight conference title.
“We got beat by a better side today,” said Marshall head coach Bob Gray.
Friday, Marshall began its tournament run with a defensive battle against UAB. The game was a rematch of the two teams’ regular season finale from the season that saw the Herd defeat the Blazers 3-2.
The opening game of the tournament remained scoreless through two overtime periods, so both teams competed in a penalty kick shootout to decide a winner. Marshall’s freshman goalkeeper Daniel Withrow stopped two of UAB’s attempts to give the Herd a 4-3 shootout win.
“Every year coach Gray always tells us that they pick us to be last in the conference so we might as well go out and show them whatever we can do,” said Dustin Dawes, senior midfielder. “This year it was just a good effort on everyone’s part to show everyone and ourselves that we can do well in this conference.”
Sunday, Tulsa jumped out to an early lead on a Justin Chavez header. The sophomore defender found the ball off of a corner kick and pushed the shot behind Withrow.
“We had our chances, and if we had put them away there could have been a different result,” Gray said.
Ten minutes later, the Golden Hurricane struck again when sophomore forward Austin Neil earned his 11th goal of the season. Neil received the ball off a rebounded shot and netted the team’s second goal of the first half.
The score remained 2-0 until the 62nd minute when Tulsa’s Jose Parada scored his eighth goal of the year. Parada received the ball after a series of passes from his teammates before scoring the insurance goal.
Rainy conditions were a factor in the game as the wet pitch allowed the ball to move in unusual ways.
“The weather made it tough as the field was sloppy, but we never quit battling,” Gray said.
Marshall ends its season with a 10-7-2 record, but still has a chance to make the national tournament as an at-large bid.
“If they pick a second team from our conference we have a chance to make the NCAA Tournament as we finished second in both the regular and post-season,” Gray said.
Adam Russell can be contacted at russell58@marshall.edu.
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