Soccer

No. 16 WVU battles to a draw against No. 11 South Carolina

MORGANTOWN – In the Sun Belt Conference, every single point gained will be earned.

Two of the SBC's best men's soccer teams met on Saturday night in Morgantown as No. 16 WVU welcomed No. 11 South Carolina to Dick Dlesk Stadium.

The Gamecocks held the No. 1 spot in the NCAA men's soccer rankings prior to the latest poll being released earlier in the week, and entered Saturday's contest sitting at No. 2 in RPI.

WVU (5-1-3, 1-0-2 Sun Belt) earned its second consecutive 1-1 draw against South Carolina (7-1-2, 1-0-2) following a match against Marshall on Sunday finishing with the same result.

The Mountaineers are now unbeaten in their last eight games after a season-opening 3-0 loss against Charlotte on the road.

"I think the first 30 minutes of the game spoiled us a little bit," WVU head coach Dan Stratford said. "I thought we deserved the goal and played some wonderful football, keeping the game in areas where we felt we could cause problems. We were a little conservative in some of what we did. Even with the pressure they came with we just didn't adjust the right way."

After an opening ten minutes of back-and-forth possession, WVU broke the ice in the 12th minute.

Jacob Redenfors fired a cross from the left wing into the 18-yard box that found the path of Issac Scheer, who calmly directed the ball into the far corner of the South Carolina net to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.

The Mountaineers took their 1-0 lead into halftime and would hold onto the advantage most of the second half.

However, the Gamecocks proved why they are one of the top teams in not only the Sun Belt Conference, but the entire country in their push for the equalizer.

A spell of relentless pressure against the backline of WVU allowed South Carolina to gain an eventual advantage on a counter attack.

South Carolina attacker Loic Sany Kong rifled the ball into the middle of the Mountaineer box that was placed into the net by Alejandro Velazquez-Lopez to knot the game at one goal each.

The final 20 minutes felt like a game within the game, if you will, with each team benefitting from video review.

First, WVU earned a penalty kick for a foul inside the 18-yard box by a South Carolina defender.

The call was challenged by the USC coaching staff and overturned.

Shortly after the non-given PK, the Gamecocks appeared to score the go-ahead goal in the 84th minute, but a challenge by the Mountaineers, on replay review, showed that a South Carolina player committed a push in the sequence that affected the goal.

The two sides settled for a draw and moved into a tie for third place in the SBC on five points.

The Mountaineers will travel next Friday for another top 25 matchup as they visit No. 23 Old Dominion.