MORGANTOWN — Dan Stratford didn’t walk off the pitch at Dick Dlesk Stadium Tuesday night feeling he had just seen an elite performance.
“We were reminded that we’re human,” the WVU men’s soccer coach said after the Mountaineers held on for a 1-0 victory against Dayton. “We were reminded that we can still have an off day as well.”
Yet it’s the national polls that say the Mountaineers are in elite status; a No. 2 ranking in the TopDrawerSoccer poll is the highest ranking ever for the men’s program.
“We’ve got the target right on our backs,” is the way senior midfielder Luke McCormick tells it. “We’ve always been the underdog before. Now, everyone is going to give us their best shot.”
Early in his fourth season at WVU, Stratford isn’t exactly in an unknown position.
It was just two years ago when WVU got hot at the right time of the season and made a magical run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
The problem was, the Mountaineers didn’t follow up on that last season, finishing 7-7-4 after being ranked No. 6 in the preseason.
“We felt like it was a meteoric rise in 2021,” Stratford began. “You leave that season and you’re No. 6 the next year, but we hadn’t done anything to earn it.”
The Mountaineers (6-0-1) have earned everything so far this year behind a defense that has allowed just three goals and a sophomore shooting star in forward Marcus Caldeira, who was held without a point for just the first time this season.
They are ranked No. 1 in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), while beating No. 3 Portland and drawing against No. 5 UCF.
“I think with this ranking and what we’ve done this season, it feels a little more authentic,” Stratford said. “We’ve earned it. We’ve played some really good teams and we’ve had some fantastic results.”
How WVU got here is a story seen before in college athletics. There was the surprise run in 2021, followed by disappointment a season later.
Through it all, Stratford kept building, recruiting and selling himself and his way of playing the game.
He’s built WVU through an international touch. The roster is represented by 12 different countries, stretching from as close as Canada and as far away as Australia and Japan.
“Recruiting is just one part of it,” McCormick said. “He’s brought in good players, but it’s the culture he’s built here and the chemistry he’s built on this team that brings out the best in us.”
Getting guys from all over the world to come together to go from being unranked at the start of the season to No. 16, then No. 4 and now No. 2 in less than a month, McCormick said that actually began before a single ball was kicked this season.
“We went on a whitewater rafting trip this summer. That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done before in my life,” said McCormick, who hails from England. “That’s the type of team activities we do that brought this team together. That’s the type of culture that’s built here.”
And so now the question is asked: Can WVU stay among the elite and make a run at a national title?
It won’t be easy. It never is, especially in a Sun Belt Conference that compares rather favorably to the SEC in college football.
The league boasts three teams in the top five, including No. 1 Marshall, giving the state of West Virginia the top two teams in the country.
“It’s cool,” Stratford said. “It’s kind of cool when you look at it in the moment. It’s cool for the state. I don’t think either one of us will spend too much time looking at it now. The objective is to still be there at the end of the year.”
And that’s the goal for WVU, especially since it has been suddenly boosted into the national soccer spotlight. The trick is remaining there.
“The communication and the message to the players is they have to own it as well,” Stratford said. “There is a sense of responsibility that comes with being a higher-ranked team.
“We always felt one of the biggest challenges after 2021 is sustaining it. The program needs to develop that type of expectation, that borderline arrogance, in that we always believe we’re a top 10 team year after year.”
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