Men's Soccer Handed 3-0 Defeat At West Virginia

Saturday, November 1

12 pm

University at Buffalo

5-9-2, 1-1-2MAC

West Virginia

10-6-1, 2-1-1MAC

Team	1	2	Final F
Buffalo	0	0	0
West Virginia	3	0	3

Men's Soccer Handed 3-0 Defeat At West Virginia

11/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

MORGANTOWN, WV – The State University of New York, Buffalo men's soccer team (5-9-2, 1-1-2 MAC) was defeated by the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday afternoon by the score of 3-0. The Mountaineers netted three first half goals to hand UB their first conference loss of the season.

"The first half performance was a major disappointment and it ultimately cost us the game," said head coach Stu Riddle. "Individually we were unprepared and there are no excuses for that in a game of this magnitude. I was pleased with the fight, character and desire we showed in the second half but without a 90 minute commitment were not going to pick up a win on the road."

The turning point of the match came in the 8^th minute, as leading scorer Russell Cicerone had an opportunity to give UB the early lead but following his shot, that was blocked, he went down with what appeared to be a lower leg injury. Cicerone did not return to the game and the Mountaineers took advantage of the Bulls misfortune soon after.

The Mountaineers opened the scoring in the 19^th minute as Andy Bevin took a feed from Zak Leedom at the top of the 18-yard box and buried a perfect shot into the right corner of the net off Waleed Cassis' fingertips.

Bevin went on to score two more goals to close out the half for West Virginia to finish off his hat-trick. In the 39^th minute of action, Bevin finished off a pretty feed from Leedom off his back heel. He beat Cassis to the lower left corner of the net after the pass led him in alone on the UB keeper.

Bevin scored his third goal in the 44^th minute of play as he beat Cassis to the lower left corner of the net once again. The Mountaineers closed the half with the 10-2 advantage in shots and the 5-2 edge in corner kicks.

In the 67th minute, Sean Young scored what appeared to be the Bulls first goal of the contest but the goal was waved off because of an offside call.

Down the stretch, the UB attack began to create more chances as freshman Abdulla Al-Kalisy created some space with nifty footwork but his right-footed shot to the top right corner was punched over the cross bar by the diving Mountaineers keeper.

For the game, West Virginia outshot the Bulls 12-6 while the two sides were knotted at six in corner kicks. In goal, Cassis finished off his afternoon with three saves while his counterpart Lee Johnston finished off his clean sheet with one save.

The Bulls sit fourth in the Mid-American Conference standings with five points and have not yet clinched a MAC tournament spot with one conference game remaining. With losses tonight by Bowling Green and Northern Illinois, the Bulls would clinch a MAC tournament berth.

UB will travel to Akron for their regular season finale on Saturday, November 8. The game is set to start at 7:00 pm.