Relentless Mountaineers dominate Bulldogs in NCAA Tournament
INDIANAPOLIS — The night started out ugly for Butler on Thursday night at the Sellick Bowl, and after a brief glimmer of hope, only got uglier in a 5-1 blowout loss to West Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Mountaineers dominated from the start and continued to keep their foot on the gas pedal even as their lead widened.
“Great performance from our guys against a top, top team,” said West Virginia head coach Marlon LeBlanc. “For us to come out and play the way we did — I think give all the credit to the kids — but my staff prepared this team properly.”
In just the third minute, a handball in the box by Butler defender Rhys Myers spelled early disaster for the hosts. West Virginia’s Rodrigo Robles Grajera stepped to the spot and fired to his left side past Butler ‘keeper Gabriel Gjergji.
But Myers quickly redeemed himself. He headed in a corner from Joel Harvey to equalize matters roughly 20 minutes in, and Butler seemed back in business. The feeling didn’t last long, however.
West Virginia responded to retake the lead later in the half, as Andres Muriel Albino took a pass from Tsubasa Takada and beat Gjergji to go up 2-1.
In the second half, West Virginia further cranked up the pressure on the hosts, nearly adding a third tally when Grajera hit a blast from distance that Gjergji had to dive low to make a fingertip parry.
The Mountaineers controlled the midfield and kept the action mostly on the Butler side of the pitch throughout. It was tactically refreshing to see a team not bunker down to milk a one-goal lead, but rather turn on the jets and further assert itself as the better side.
A third West Virginia goal felt imminent, and once it finally came — via Josh DiMatteo in the 81st — the floodgates didn’t just opened, the doors might as well have been blown off.
Repeated late Bulldogs defensive breakdowns allowed in a fourth and fifth moments after, courtesy of Grajera and DiMatteo, respectively, who each finished with a brace.
“When we got the second goal, obviously they started to really push those numbers up,” LeBlanc added. “When we got the third, now they’ve really got to loosen themselves up defensively. So, if we can continue to be compact in terms of what we’re doing from a defensive-pressuring standpoint, we thought we could turn them over. We were able to turn them over.”
Next up for West Virginia is a trip to face No. 11 seed Marshall (15-2-3) in the second round.
Butler, meanwhile, will likely feel the sting of the lopsided loss for some time. The Bulldogs were an utter disaster defensively, unable to handle pressure and conceding possession in their own defensive third a discouraging number of times. Butler head coach Paul Snape will need to make shoring up that side of the ball his top priority in the offseason based on Thursday’s collapse.
Follow Kevin on Twitter: @KJboxing.
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