West Virginia dominates Butler in NCAA tournament first round, 5-1
The West Virginia men’s soccer team dominated Butler on Thursday evening in the first round of the NCAA tournament coming out on top 5-1.
Rodrigo Robles Grajera began the scoring attack for the Mountaineers (10-8-2) on the night with a penalty kick goal in the second minute, giving West Virginia the early 1-0 advantage.
Butler (11-7-2) then chipped in a goal of their own in the 20th minute off the foot of Rhys Myers assisted by Joel Harvey and knotted the score at 1-1.
Andres Muriel Albino gave West Virginia the one goal advantage after an assist from Tsubasa Takada gave the Mountaineers the 2-1 lead.
West Virginia totaled five shots in the opening period as opposed to Butler’s pair of shots off the feet of Derek Sutton and Jack Haywood.
The second period saw the Mountaineers run away with the match as West Virginia found the back of the net four times off of 13 shots.
West Virginia sent four shots toward the goal over 20 minutes of action to begin the second period which were all stopped by Butler goalkeeper Gabriel Grergji.
Following the scoring drought, a pair of Mountaineers in Josh DiMatteo and Robles Grajera found the back of the net a trio of times through only three minutes in the period.
The Mountaineers then saw their lead extend to two goals when DiMatteo netted the third West Virginia goal of the night off a goalkeeper deflection.
Robles Grajera then found the net again for the Mountaineers' fourth goal only 39 seconds later which denied any chance of a Butler comeback.
The Mountaineers weren’t done, however, as DiMatteo found the net for the second time and the fifth and final West Virginia goal of the night for the 5-1 victory.
West Virginia will now take on in-state rival Marshall on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.