Raider's defeat West Virginia

Wright State’s men’s soccer team pulled out a gritty win against West Virginia Tuesday evening.

Down 1-0 at the half, the Raiders (5-1) were in jeopardy of falling at home to a very athletic Mountaineers (2-4) team, but saw their fortunes change on a penalty kick by Sam DeRoy at the 57^{th minute.}

"What do you say about the second half? It was electric," coach Bryan Davis said.

And electric it was as the Raiders got a bit of assistance from West Virginia with less than 10 minutes to play, on an own goal. Before all of that transpired though, the Raiders were overwhelmed by the speed of the Mountaineers.

"They’re fantastic. They’re the most athletic team I’ve seen, maybe in two years. They are the only team that’s matched us athletically," Davis said. "They were something."

West Virginia’s stout defense kept Wright State mostly on their own side of the field, resulting in just two first half shots by the Raiders.

"They’re just on a higher pace and we weren’t used to it. Because they were so athletic we never really got comfortable and we settled them down at halftime, talked to them a bit and talked about the standard that we want to set," Davis said.

While Wright State did eventually settled down, it didn’t come easy, as eight yellow cards were issued, five by Wright State. West Virginia’s speed and aggressiveness seemed to cause a lot of the frustration by the Raiders, but nothing Davis wasn’t ready to combat.

"They play a high tempo, but they also do it by being well organized. For us, it really disrupted our flow and our rhythm," Davis said. "We didn’t get the ball down and we didn’t play the way we like to play."

With Wright State leading 2-1 with just 17 seconds left in the game, WVU’s goalkeeper Daniel Loss-Diaz left his goal defenseless, and senior forward Brett Elder made him pay, scoring the final goal of the game. After so many close calls at the goal, Raider fans erupted, acknowledging the resiliency shown by their team.

A hard fought win for the Raiders did come at a price though, as junior forward Eric Lynch went down at the end of the match with an apparent hand injury.