In the Patriot League opener on Saturday, the AU men’s soccer team avenged last year’s Patriot League championship loss to Bucknell University Bison in front of 1,000 plus fans with a 3-1 win.
“It’s a big relief, you always want to get that one out of the way especially with the defending Patriot League champions,” senior Nick Kapus said. “It’s a huge win for us on one of our not-so-good days, but we managed to find three goals and that’s what we needed.”
Within the first 10 minutes, the Bison went on the attack. Defender Mayowa Alli was awarded a throw in, but when he threw the ball in, it went to the back of the net, but the goal was disallowed by the official because the ball did not touch any player before it went over the goal line.
AU took the close call to their advantage and was awarded a free kick around midfield in the 24th minute. Seth Goldman’s kick into the box was headed by Eli Dennis into a crowd of players, and senior Mike Worden took a shot inside the six yard box that went in the upper right hand corner to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
Thirteen minutes later, AU went on attack again as Jack Scott received the ball on the left corner of the 18 yard box, passed it across the top of the box to Kapus who placed a left footed shot into the far left corner for his first goal of the season, putting AU up 2-0 going into halftime.
In the 52nd minute freshman defender Cristobal Soto scored his first goal of the season. He cranked a 35-yard shot into the top left corner after dribbling past two defenders.
“I had a couple of coaches say to me ‘that is not a freshman’, and he’s actually the youngest guy on our roster, but he plays like a senior,” head coach Todd West said. “He reads the game, he’s composed, his feet our great, I can’t say enough good things about Cristobal.
According to West, these conference games are referred to as “Patriot League Wars,” a perfect description for Saturday’s game.
AU defender Alex Tilatti was kicked by a Bucknell player, sparking an almost bench clearing brawl between the two teams. AU forward Alassane Kane was given a yellow card for throwing Bucknell midfielder Ross Liberati to the ground. After a 20 minute delay, play resumed as Tilatti was able to get up on his own power and return to the game.
Brendan Klebanoff scored for the Bison a minute later, but the Eagles were able to hang on and win their first Patriot League game.
“I don’t think it was our best game, soccer wise, but winning conference games is huge,” West said. “The only stat we are going to look at is 1-0, so it’s a big start for us.”
Bucknell was awarded 14 corners to AU’s zero. AU was also out shot 24 to 14, but AU goalie Matt Makowski proved solid.
The Eagles will face Virginia Tech Sept. 28 before returning to Patriot League play against Army next weekend.
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