Dylan Ribott
Graduate defender Liam Bennett takes a corner kick to set up a potential shot on goal for his teammates during the Wolfpack's first round home playoff game against the Charlottle 49ers at Dail Soccer Field on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. The Wolfpack beat the 49ers 2-1 in double overtime.
Conceding two goals in the first half against Marshall, NC State men’s soccer knew that its most difficult opponent in the second half was not the Thundering Herd, but the clock. Despite narrowing the difference to one goal, the Wolfpack had to watch Marshall do everything it could to run out the clock on a team it was lucky to get a win over.
Outshooting the Herd 15-7, putting five more of those on target and winning the corner battle 7-1 wasn’t enough to corral the Herd. With a 2-1 loss, NC State’s NCAA tournament hopes were dashed in the third round.
As head coach Marc Hubbard’s system calls for, the Pack got out to its high-press style of play early causing havoc in the back-line and midfield for Marshall. With the wind at its back, the Wolfpack was controlling play but not generating much offensive production.
In one of the few times the ball was in a threatening area for Marshall, it capitalized, just nine minutes in. Redshirt sophomore centerback Isaac Heffess errantly played the ball across the top of his own box and on the other end was Marshall forward Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos who calmly placed it in the bottom right corner past the outstretched hand of junior goalkeeper Logan Erb.
In the 17th minute, Heffess nearly made an atonement for his earlier mistake but his header off a corner was saved by a diving Marshall goalkeeper in Aleksa Janjic.
Calling his number a second time, dos Santos scored again in the 37th minute forcing the Wolfpack to stare down the barrel of a 2-0 deficit. The 14-time goal scorer made the Pack pay as he notched his second brace in back-to-back NCAA tournament games.
Prior to the second goal, Erb came off his line to make a tackle inside the box on a through ball that left Marshall one-on-one with the junior. Using an outstretched leg, Erb caught all of the ball and cleanly dissolved the scoring opportunity.
Entering the second half, the Pack knew that all it had to do was take it one goal at a time. The group nearly got that elusive first score when sophomore forward Hakim Karamoko got his head on the ball but directed it just outside of the post.
As the clock kept ticking, the Pack became more desperate, and as a result, more physical. With each team doing whatever it took to waste time or get the ball back, the referee had to issue six total yellow cards, two of them going to the NC State bench.
It took 77 minutes of play before the Pack cut the deficit to one courtesy of senior midfielder Vusumzi Plamana. On a corner kick from graduate defender Liam Bennett, Plamana got his head on the ball and past Janjic.
The final 13 minutes saw more of the same, the Pack desperately trying to move the ball up the field and generate chances while Marshall was looking to just hold on. As the clock winded down from 10 and the ball in its half, Hubbard and the rest of the team knew that the season was over.
While the Wolfpack’s season is done, Hubbard was the only one of his peers to make it to the third round in their first year as a head coach. It was the Wolfpack’s first time making it to the third round of the NCAA Tournament since 1992.