MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After struggling to find the back of the net in stretches this season, West Virginia secured a second consecutive win in dominating fashion. The Mountaineers (4-6-2) had no trouble with Lehigh (3-6-2) in a 3-0 win at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
“It was professional. With respect to Lehigh, we did expect to be the better team today and we expected to have a lot more of the ball. But I said that a year ago as well. Football is a funny game and it can take only one little moment for things to get interesting,” said WVU head coach Dan Stratford.
WVU dominated possession in the first half and they were rewarded in the 35th minute. Yutaro Tsukada scored his first goal of the season on a well-struck shot off an assist from Marcus Caldeira. The Mountaineers led 1-0 at halftime.
WVU doubled their lead just 42 seconds into the second half. Caldeira scored his third goal in the last two matches after being set up by Adam Burchell and Tsukada. Sergio Ors Navarro capped the scoring in the 69th minute with his second tally of the year.
WVU has scored seven goals in their last two matches, following a 4-0 win at Old Dominion Saturday. In their previous five matches, the Mountaineers scored just twice.
“Sometimes you can go through a little bit of a rut. We probably had a combination of going through a bad spell, a little bit of confidence. Those two combinations can be deadly.
“They had to face the reality of how poor it had been and how poor we had been in our chance-conversion rate. We have padded stats in two games. They are righting some wrongs.”
West Virginia outshot Lehigh 18-3 and the Mountaineers did not surrender a shot on goal.
The Mountaineers will host No. 2 Kentucky (8-0-2) Saturday evening in a Sun Belt Conference fixture.
“Now there is some momentum with us and there is an uptick with us. It is a great time to play what is conceivably on our schedule the last great, great team. They’re in great form. They’re a very, very good team. We know a lot about them from last year in that regard. We know it is not going to be easy. But we’re up for it. We can’t wait to have them here and to show them and to show everyone in the country that we haven’t dropped down from last season at all. We had a stumble at the start and we faced some adversity. We are ready to come back stronger.”