Men's Soccer Blanks Houghton, 2-0

Wednesday, October 1

7 pm

University at Buffalo

3-7-0

Houghton

5-5-0

Buffalo

Houghton

10/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

HOUGHTON, NY - The University at Buffalo men's soccer team collected their first shutout of the 2014 season on Wednesday night as they defeated Houghton College by the score of 2-0. UB improves to 3-7-0 while Houghton falls to 5-5-0 on the season.

"It's nice to be able to head into Mid-American Conference play on the back end of a comfortable victory in which the bulk of the squad got playing time," said head coach Stu Riddle.

Leading scorer Russell Cicerone got the Bulls on the board early on in the first half as he took a Nicolai Berry feed, dribbled through the Houghton defense and buried a perfectly placed shot in the lower left corner of the net in the 13th minute of play. The goal for Cicerone was his team-high fifth on the season while Berry now leads the Bulls with four assists.

Buffalo completely dominated the rest of the opening half of action as they recorded eight more shots, three on goal, while Houghton was not able to record a single shot on the UB keeper Cameron Hogg. The Bulls defensive backline stood tall, turning away any would be chances for the Highlanders.

The UB offense continued to attack in the second half of play as many of the bench players were able to enter the game and earn valuable playing time in the final 45 minutes of action. The Bulls put the game away in the 85th minute as Nicolay Netskar buried his first goal of the season after a nice pass from freshman Abdulla Al-Kalisy. The goal for Netskar was his second career marker while Al-Kalisy now has two assists in his rookie campaign.

For the match, UB held the 19-3 edge in shots along with the slim 3-2 advantage in corner kicks. Houghton goalkeeper Jacob Dunnett had a strong showing in the loss as he made 11 saves for the Highlanders.

Hogg finished off his first career victory with a clean sheet as he was only asked to make one second half save. Hogg now owns a 2.25 goals-against average while making 17 saves for the season.

Cicerone was dangerous all night long for the Bulls as he recorded a team-high four shots on goal while Al-Kalisy had a strong showing with a career-high four shots. Sean Young, Ryan Pereira and Netskar each finished with two shots for the match.

The Bulls will return to the pitch next Friday, October 10 as they play host to conference foe Western Michigan in their first conference match of the season. The game is set to start at 7:00 pm inside UB Stadium.