No. 5 West Virginia men's soccer scores 5 goals, downs No. 1 Marshall

Entering play on Wednesday night, No. 1-ranked and undefeated Marshall had only allowed five goals all season.

Then came West Virginia.

A record-setting crowd of 3,147 at the Mountain State Derby witnessed no shortage of offense in Morgantown for No. 5 West Virginia’s 5-2 win over No. 1 Marshall — marking the first win for the Mountaineers over a No. 1 team since October 18th, 2011, when they beat then-No. 1 UConn, 2-0.

Before Wednesday night, the Thundering Herd had only trailed for 4:14 all season in a match against Georgia Southern on October 1st. That changed when West Virginia responded to an early 1-0 deficit with three straight goals under two minutes of each other early in the first half.

As easy as 1️⃣, 2️⃣, 3️⃣ #HailWV pic.twitter.com/5To4FfPimr

— WVU Men's Soccer (@WVUMensSoccer) October 18, 2023

West Virginia forward Marcus Caldeira led the impressive offensive effort for the Mountaineers by putting together a career night. Recording his first career hat-trick, Caldeira scored two of West Virginia’s three first-half goals and added a third in the 64th minute to give the Mountaineers insurance. The hat-trick marks the first by a West Virginia player since Andy Bevin did so against Buffalo in 2014.  

🎩 🎩 🎩

The first hat trick for a Mountaineer since 2014!#HailWV pic.twitter.com/1dDwLwpZAy

— WVU Men's Soccer (@WVUMensSoccer) October 19, 2023

Caldeira now has a Sun Belt-leading 12 goals on the season after his second career multi-goal performance.

West Virginia improves to 10-0-4 and continues on a 14-match unbeaten streak, the longest for WVU to begin a season and the second-longest in program history since a 17-match streak in the 1967-68 seasons.