Mountaineers score five in blowout

The West Virginia men's soccer team had never scored five goals in a game under head coach Marlon LeBlanc.

That all changed Friday.

The Mountaineers wasted no time jumping out to a quick lead against DePaul Friday night, winning their Big East Conference opener 5-0 over the Blue Demons.

"All the credit goes to the kids," LeBlanc said. "They make me look like I know what I'm doing."

In the team's first six games, it scored a mere three goals in the first half. They matched that number Friday, taking a 3-0 lead in the first 45 minutes of play.

The Mountaineers picked up their first goal with 28:02 to go in the first half when defender Ray Gaddis played a ball to forward Shadow Sebele, who then delivered a pass to junior Franck Tayou, who scored from the top of the box, to give West Virginia a 1-0 lead.

Just six minutes later, WVU got on the board again. Forward Jay Williams got the ball in the middle of the box and crossed it to forward Peabo Doue who dribbled through the DePaul defense into the middle of the field. He put it past the goalkeeper for his fourth goal in the last three games.

The first half scoring ended with just less than five minutes to go. Williams got past DePaul's defense and drew the Blue Demons' goalkeeper, Joe Ferrari, out of the goal, passing off to junior Matt Drake for the goal and Williams' second assist of the contest.

In the second half, the Mountaineers used their first-half momentum to put DePaul away.

In the 49th minute, DePaul's Andre Gutierrez was called for a handball in the box, which resulted in a penalty kick from Sebele converting a penalty kick for his first goal of the season, extending the WVU lead to 4-0.

"It felt good," Sebele said. "I feel like I got a big monkey off my back."

After a couple more solid scoring chances for the Mountaineers, DePaul had another great scoring opportunity.

Gutierrez took a shot from about 20 yards out, but WVU goalkeeper Zach Johnson made a diving save to stop the goal and any chance DePaul had of ending the shutout.

"Me and Zach already talked about it, we want to see Zach Johnson be the leader in shut outs for West Virginia," Gaddis said. "Every game we want to shutout every team. We want to show teams that we can shut them down when they come to play here at home."

To add insult to injury, the Mountaineers picked up their final goal of the game with 1:26 to go in the contest when freshman Julio Arjona drilled a goal from 35 yards away, the first of his college career.

"(The bench) gave us great minutes ... They're in to change the game, and I thought those guys did just that," LeBlanc said.