The Ohio State men’s soccer team is taking a break from conference play as it plans to host its last non-conference game of the regular season.

The No. 25 Buckeyes (8-3-3, 2-1-0) will face the West Virginia Mountaineers (6-2-5) at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium for their second-to-last home game of the season. 

West Virginia is coming to Columbus with a very young team, but have been playing very well lately.

Coming off a win against Notre Dame, the Mountaineers will likely have a lot of momentum coming into this game. West Virginia’s last loss was Sept. 18 against Louisville.

“They’re playing very well right now. It will be a good chance for us to build some momentum going into Wisconsin next weekend,” coach John Bluem said. 

West Virginia typically plays well on the road as they have lost only once and tied twice to push their road record to 3-1-2.

Three of the four games that remain for the Buckeyes will be conference play. Those games are the most important, Bluem said.

One of the goals for the team is to win the Big Ten Championship by beating Penn State on Sunday. They positioned themselves to do that.

The Buckeyes, along with Indiana and Wisconsin, are tied for second in the standings, each with six points. Penn State is still the leader with seven points. The top spot is there for OSU, but the Buckeyes will have to win all three conference games to capture the Big Ten title.

“We’ve kept our hopes alive,” Bluem said.

Now, the Buckeyes just need to go out and win.

The game begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The time was moved up two hours because of potential traffic delays at the Schottenstein Center later in the evening thanks to the Cavs game.