Ruken Powers Bulls to 4-3 Win Over Western Michigan on Thursday

Thursday, October 14

Buffalo, NY

7:00 PM

University at Buffalo

10-3-1, 4-2-1

Western Michigan

3-11-0, 1-6-0

Western Mich.

Buffalo

Ruken Powers Bulls to 4-3 Win Over Western Michigan on Thursday

10/14/2021 10:04:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Photo Gallery

BUFFALO, NY – University at Buffalo women's soccer freshman Alya Ruken netted a pair of goals, including the game-winner, to lead the Bulls to a thrilling 4-3 win over Western Michigan at UB Stadium on Thursday night. With the win the Bulls improve to 10-3-1 on the year and 4-2-1 in league play.

The Bulls struck first in the 10^th minute as Emily Lazenby played a beautiful deep ball into the box and Katherine Camper one-timed a shot into the back of the net to give UB an early 1-0 lead.

Western Michigan would answer in the 32^nd minute as Jenna Blackburn slid a shot past a diving Emily Kelly to tie the game 1-1 and that would be the score at the half.

The Broncos came out attacking to start the second half and it would pay off in the 50^th minute as they capitalized off a UB turnover and Cas Flanagan scored to give Western Michigan a 2-1 lead.

Buffalo fought back in the 59^th minute as Leah Wengender played a great ball across the box to Ruken who banged a shot far post to tie the game 2-2.

Western Michigan would take advantage of another Bulls' defensive miscue in the 65^th minute as Bailey Korhorn found the back of the net to give the Broncos a 3-2 lead.

The Bulls had an answer less than a minute later as Gianna Yurchak was on the attack when she was taken down in the box and converted on the ensuing penalty kick to tie the game at three.

The two teams battled back and forth for the next 20 minutes before Marcy Barberic broke free up the sideline and played a ball across to Ruken who settled and blasted a shot into the top right corner of the net to give the Bulls a 4-3 lead and that would be all they would need to secure the victory.

On the game, Buffalo out shot Western Michigan 14-11, including a 9-6 advantage in shots on goal. Kelly picked up the win, making three saves on the night while Maggie Rogers made five saves for the Broncos. After recording the first two goals of her Buffalo career, Ruken was named Player of the Game by the UB coaches.

"Hopefully a win like this galvanizes us," said associate head coach Casey Derkacz. "From such an emotional defeat over the weekend to now such an emotional win, hopefully we know what it takes because we know we need to go the full 90 minutes and that was slugfest tonight. Every single game is going to be a scrap. Western's record doesn't indicate the kind of team that are and I think they came into the game knowing that they needed to get a result and we are going to find ourselves in similar situations with other teams that we are going to play are going to need results as well so nothing is going to come easy."

Buffalo returns to action on Sunday, October 17 as they travel to DeKalb, IL for a match against the Northern Illinois Huskies at 2pm.