The AU Men's Soccer team suffered its most disappointing, if not most damaging, loss of the season Sunday, losing a 1-0 Patriot League clash at home to Bucknell University on the Eagles' Senior Day.
The Eagles dominated possession and scoring opportunities, outshooting the Bison 23-8. But Bucknell stayed organized and confident its game plan - stealing a goal through the PL's co-scoring leader, Scott Visnic.
The loss ends a six-game unbeaten run and drops the Eagles to 9-5-2, with a 4-1 PL mark. AU is tied atop the PL standings with Lafayette, and visits the Leopards on Nov. 6 to close the regular season. Wins there and at Army next Saturday would still guarantee the Eagles the regular-season PL crown.
"Everything we wanted to do is still there," said AU head coach Todd West. "We won the league in 2001 at 6-1, so we'll see how we respond [in practice] on Wednesday, and get ready for Army."
The Bison kept their PL tourney hopes alive with the win, pushing their league record to 3-2 (5-8-1 overall).
Visnic put the Bison ahead just before halftime, coolly finishing a one-on-one chance against senior 'keeper Thomas Myers in the 43rd minute, notching his sixth goal this year.
The Bison found Visnic through quick combination play, with defender Otto Tancraitor feeding defender Michael Lookingland, who slotted a ball through to the Bison poacher.
While AU dominated the match's first 30 minutes, Bucknell established itself in the final 15 minutes of the half, and its goal was a deserved result. While AU hoarded possession, the first half, it never truly looked dangerous as Bucknell routinely disrupted the Eagles' center attack.
"They man-marked (senior midfielder) Shawn Kuykendall," West said. Kuykendall, usually the Eagles lead attacker, was relatively quiet in the afternoon.
"If someone's man-marking him, he still has to figure out how to be effective for us," West added. "He could've done better at that today. But it's the ultimate compliment to get man-marked all over the field, especially for a midfielder."
After a shaky start to the second half, the Eagles dominated the final period and created several chances as good as Visnic's. The best came in the 67th minute, when a long diagonal ball from the right beat the Bison offside trap and found Sal Caccavale alone on goal.
But Caccavale, usually a lethal finisher, was denied by charging Bison 'keeper Joey Kuterbach, who parried away the first shot. Senior forward David Marut reached the rebound on the right and passed to senior forward Sean Albright in front of goal. Kuterbach smothered Albright's low 10-yard rebound effort.
That chance came four minutes after Marut missed high on a glancing header from six yards. Marut and Albright each had chances in the closing minutes as well.
Five minutes from time, Marut just missed reaching a dangerous cross by Caccavale from the left, with Kuterbach already beaten.
With a minute left, Albright reached a right-sided cross from midfielder Garth Juckem, but mistimed his header, which Kuterbach handled easily on one bounce.
"When teams sit back, it's asking you to be sharp in front of the net," West said. "I still say Sal usually tucks his chance away. Albright did everything right [on the last chance]. They tell forwards to head it down, but he actually headed it too far down. But he did the right thing."
Albright said he thinks he could've done better. "I've been around the game long enough that, yeah, I'm not a pure finisher, but I could've done better with some of my chances," said Albright.
The Eagles came into the match with more than enough emotional inspiration. Bucknell ended the Eagles' PL tournament hopes in 2003 in a 2-1 affair in Lewisburg, Pa. Also, despite it not being AU's last home game this year, Albright, Kuykendall, Marut and Myers, and defenders Charlie Koniver and Nick Zaron were recognized for their contributions as the team's senior class.
The Eagles didn't think that extra emotion hurt them, but didn't count it out, either.
"I didn't think it did, but it can," Albright said. "You want to win for your parents and for all the fans. Sometimes guys can tighten up. But I don't really think [they] did"
