Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.V. – In both teams' 2012 season opener, the University of Hartford men's soccer team and the nationally ranked West Virginia Mountaineers each played an even match for more than three-quarters of the game on Saturday evening, however, it was Doue Peabo's goal in the 78th minute that proved to be the difference maker as the Mountaineers scored a 2-1 victory over the visiting Hawks. The two teams played in front of a packed house of 1,786 at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.

Hartford, which resumes action on Monday when it heads to Penn State for a 7:00 p.m. match with the Nittany Lions, drops to 0-1 on the young season while West Virginia, which was ranked 18th in the TopDrawerSoccer.com preseason poll and 23rd in the Soccer America poll, is 1-0 thus far in 2012.

Opening night proved to be a physical game for both teams as a combined 41 fouls, seven yellow cards and three red cards were issued. The Hawks were forced to play without head coach Tom Poitras on the sidelines for the majority of the match as he received a red card in the 25th minute of play. Sophomore Rohan Roye was later ejected in the 81st minute while WVU rookie Ryan Cain was handed a red card in the 86th minute.

WVU, who outshot the Hawks by a 5-2 margin in the first half, earned an early 1-0 lead but sophomore Connor Yeaney scored the game-tying goal for Hartford in the 30th minute. Travis Pittman earned the Mountaineers' first goal by putting his head on a cross by Doue and placing it behind Hartford's rookie keeper Viltsu Tuumi in the 21st minute.

Just eight minutes after Pittman provided the Mountaineers with the advantage, David Bernhardsson, a junior striker, initiated the Hawks' offense from 35-yards out on a free kick by sending a ball to the back post. Yeaney, who was positioned inside of the 18-yard box, used his head to reach the far right corner of the net and tie up the match with Hartford's first goal of the season. The shot was just the second attempt for the Hawks in the game and proved to be their last look at the goal for the remainder of the half. 

Twenty-three minutes after the halftime break, Peabo collected his third point of the vening by supplying the game-winning marker after converting on a chip pass by Uwek Etuck from 15-yards out.

With 22 minutes remaining on the scoreboard, the Hawks were in desperation to find the equalizer. That attempt was made more difficult, though, as Roye was issued the game's second red card, leaving his team with 10 players on the field for the last 19 minutes of the match. 

During that stretch, Hartford saw a pair of attempts to make it a 2-2 game, starting with a shot off the boot of Bernhardsson, which was booted just wide of the goal. After the playing field was leveled due to a WVU ejection, fellow classmate Anthony Santaga fired one final shot towards the Mountaineers' net with just 22 ticks left in regulation, but his attempt was swatted away by goalkeeper Pat Eavenson.

On the game, the Hawks saw six less shot attempts as the Mountaineers held a 14-8 advantage. In his first collegiate match, Tuumi made four saves while his counterpart, Eavenson, rejected three shots. Bernhardsson led Hartford's offense with three shots while Pittman led all players with four, including three on-goal.