MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The No. 16 West Virginia University men's soccer team opened the 2025 season with a dominant 5-2 victory over Manhattan, Thursday afternoon at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
 
Junior Pablo Pozos tallied a hat trick in his Mountaineer debut, the second straight season that a WVU player has registered a hat trick in the season opener after Sergio Ors Navarro scored three against Purdue Fort Wayne in 2024.
 
Senior Marcus Caldeira, the Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year, scored the 29^th goal of his career while senior Ethan Dekel Daks notched WVU's fifth and final goal of the contest.
 
Caldeira also tallied three assists, the most since Joey Piatzczyc had three against American in 2018. Sophomore Isaac Scheer and sophomore Oscar Emilio Trujillo Lizárraga each had two assists while senior Felix Ewald and senior Antonio Lima both had one.
 
Pozos got on the board in the 10^th minute and scored again just a minute later with his head to put the Mountaineers in front.
 
Manhattan got a goal back in the 20^th minute before Caldeira responded in the 26^th minute as he was set up by Scheer, who slid to save the ball from going over the end line and slotted it into the center of the box for Caldeira.
 
In the 31^st minute, Pozos completed his hat trick off assists from Lizárraga and Caldeira before Dekel Daks found the back of the net in the 34^th minute off assists from Caldeira and Lima.
 
The Mountaineers improve to 6-0 in season openers in the Dan Stratford era and have won nine straight season openers overall. It is also the first time WVU has scored five goals since defeating No. 1 Marshall, 5-2, in 2023.
 
West Virginia will be back at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium on Monday to take on La Salle. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. ET.
 
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