Men's soccer weekly release

Bulls Beat Bonnies, Fall in Lobo Classic

The University at Buffalo men's soccer team went 1-2 in their three contests last week. UB opened the week at home with a 2-1 victory over local rival St. Bonaventure as Casey Derkacz and Andy Tiedt netted goals. The Bulls then traveled to Albuquerque, NM for the Lobo Classic. UB fell to host New Mexico, 1-0, in Friday's opening and then lost on Sunday, 4-0, to UC Santa Barbara. Kieron Gradwell was named to the all-tournament team.

Figler Gets First Career Win in First Start

After playing a backup role for the first four games of the season, freshman goalkeeper Jeremy Figler was given his first start in net as the Bulls defeated St. Bonaventure, 2-1. Figler looked a little shaky in the beginning of the match, allowing a dribbler in front of the net by SBU's Fabrizio Savarino to get past him for the first goal of the match. Figler and the Bulls then recovered from the jolt and held the Bonnies off the scoreboard for the final 79 minutes of the contest.

One Goal is All it Takes

The Bulls have played four consecutive one-goal games this season, winning the first three, all in Buffalo, against Canisius, Robert Morris and St. Bonaventure, before being on the losing end of a 1-0 margin to New Mexico on Friday. 

You Can't Win if You Don't Score

All four of UB's losses have been by shutout this season and all four have come in tournament play. The Bulls fell to two teams in the NCSAA's preseason poll at the Bert & Iris Wolstein Classic. Penn State was one of five schools receiving votes in the opening poll while Ohio State was ranked 18th nationally. In the Lobo Classic, UB was unable to find the net against New Mexico and UCSB, a team that started the season ranked among the top 10 in the national poll but had fallen out of the poll by the time the Bulls faced the Gauchos on Sunday.

Astudillo's Comments

Head coach John Astudillo summed up the team's play following the Lobo Classic and also commented on UB's home win over St. Bonaventure. "New Mexico and UC Santa Barbara are top teams that tested our team at a very high standard. We played well enough on Friday but the Sunday game uncovered some of our weaknesses. The St Bonaventure game gave us clues that the Bulls can maintain a solid pace on the entire game. It was satisfying to know that a goal down will not affect our play."

Idle Feet

The Bulls are off until September 28 when they open Mid-American Conference play at Hartwick. The Bulls were originally slated to play at Cornell this week (September 23) but scheduling conflicts between the two teams forced the cancellation of the game.