Coming off of its first win against a Mountain East Conference (MEC) opponent, the Point Park men’s soccer team returned to Highmark Stadium on Wednesday, Sept. 18, to meet Wheeling University. 

The Wheeling Cardinals were scoreless against MEC schools so far this season entering Wednesday’s contest. The Cardinals were also looking to post its first victory of the season overall against the Pioneers.

It took nearly fifteen minutes until Wheeling got the first shot on goal in the game, but it was stopped by Point Park goalkeeper David Ali. The Pioneers did not get its first shot until 21:45 into the game.

At 37:43, Point Park senior forward Moritz Sarfert came into the game for the first time this season. He made his presence known rather quickly, getting a shot on goal as the clock was winding down in the first half. Sarfert, the highest scoring player returning from last year’s team, started in the second half and played the majority of the remaining 45 minutes of the game.

Only three shots on goal occurred in the second half, but the real story was the physicality towards the end of the game. Four fouls total from the two teams occurred between the 72 and 77 minutes of the game. A total of thirteen fouls were called in the second half, four from Wheeling, and nine from Point Park. 

The first yellow card of the game was handed out with 11:17 remaining, when Wheeling’s Kudakwashe Chitani tripped Point Park’s Felipe Menezes as he was coming up the field with the ball. 

The Cardinals and the Pioneers remained in a stalemate on the scoreboard for the remainder of the game, resulting in a 0-0 tie, the first tie this season for Point Park. 

Point Park left the game with a 1-2-1 conference record and were 2-2-1 overall.

The Pioneers returned to Highmark Stadium on Saturday for the second game of a Homecoming double-header against West Liberty University.