No. 14 Marshall men’s soccer advances to SBC semifinal with win over UK
Romberg goal and assist; Carvalho pair of assists
Box Score (PDF) | Championship Fund
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The second-seeded and No. 14 Marshall Men’s Soccer Team (11-2-4) advanced to the 2026 Sun Belt Conference Semifinals with a 4-1 win over seventh-seeded Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday at Hoops Family Field.
Carl Romberg tallied a goal and an assist with Joao Carvalho registering a pair of assists.
“There were moments in the first half I thought we played quite well,” Herd Men’s Soccer Head Coach Chris Grassie said. “The second half just wasn’t good. We didn’t play with the correct rhythm. So, we’ll be looking to improve on that. We just go in and try to kill the game every time, instead of stepping on the ball and trying to move the ball around. But you know a 4-1 win over Kentucky, we’ll take it and move on to the next one.”
In the 11th minute, the Herd opened the scoring. Goncalo Machado sent a pass to Carvalho. Carvalho then sent a cross into the 18-yard box as Romberg headed home his team-leading seventh goal of the season.
Then at 22:06 mark, Romberg sent a pass into the box for Carvalho, who found Haruhi Taneda at the left post. Taneda then put the ball into a wide-open net to double the lead at 2-0 as that was the score at halftime.
The Wildcats cut Marshall’s lead in half with a Thomas Berteotti tally in the 65th. However, Kentucky goalkeeper Benjamin Rasmussen dropped a ball and Adam N’Goran pounced to score his third goal of the season at the 76:33 mark to make it 3-1.
Less than two minutes later, Alvaro Alvarez sent an over-the-top pass to Joao Roberto who beat Rasmussen in the 79th minute to make it 4-1 and the Herd through to the semifinals.
Marshall outshot Kentucky 12-9, including 6-1 in shots on goal.
UP NEXT
The Herd is set to host an SBC Semifinal at 7 p.m. on Wednesday against the winner of third-seeded UCF and sixth-seeded South Carolina.
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—HerdZone.com—
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