Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
St. Bonaventure
LaGrave's Two Goals Help Bucknell Men's Soccer to First Win of Year, 3-1 Over St. Bonaventure
9/3/2006 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 3, 2006
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Freshman Nathan LaGrave (Okinawa, Japan/Kadena) scored two first-half goals to help the Bucknell men's soccer team to its first victory of the season as it defeated St. Bonaventure 3-1 Sunday afternoon at Varsity Soccer Field. The contest was the home opener for the Bison, who improved to 1-1-1 with the win.
LaGrave gave Bucknell the early lead, scoring just 3 minutes, 53 seconds into the contest when he chipped a ball in over the head of the Bonnies' goalkeeper Massimo Collu-Marchese. The play started with Mark Schmiegel (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) dribbling the ball up the left sideline and passing it ahead to Matt Hittson (Radnor, Pa./Radnor). Hittson quickly shuttled the ball to LaGrave who chipped it in from not far outside the box.
In the 22nd minute LaGrave staked the Bison to a 2-0 advantage, their first since defeating Holy Cross 2-0 last September, when he headed in the ball off a free kick from Joe Mellott (Highland, Md./Mount St. Joseph).
The two-goal advantage did not last long as Josh Henderson got the Bonnies on the board when he fired a shot past Joey Kuterbach (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood) while laying down in a crowd. The score came in the 25th minute.
Prior to LaGrave's second goal, St. Bonaventure had nearly tied the game at 1-1, but Kuterbach made a pair of solid saves on back-to-back possessions. First, Kuterbach dove to his left while Nikola Vasilev shot the ball to Kuterbach's right. Kuterbach managed to get a foot on it as he was diving the opposite direction and turned the ball away. Kevin Omokhua got in the open field for a breakaway on the Bonnies next possession, but Kuterbach made a save of the shot, one of his five in the match.
A goal in the open field by Alex Russo (Middletown, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) with less than five minutes showing on the clock sealed the game for Bucknell. Hittson found Russo ahead of most of the defenders and Russo sailed the ball past Collu-Marchese.
The three goals for the Bison were the most they had scored since back-to-back wins over NJIT (3-2) and Army (3-1) in September of 2004. Scott Visnic netted two goals in that win over NJIT, marking the last time a Bucknell player had tallied two goals in a contest before LaGrave Sunday.
The loss dropped St. Bonaventure to 0-3-0 on the season. The Bonnies, who also lost by two goals to Patriot League foe Colgate earlier this year, are in the midst of a six-game road trip to open the 2006 campaign.
The Bison return to action Wednesday when they travel to Saint Francis (Pa.) for a 4 p.m. tilt. Bucknell plays at home this weekend when it hosts the Geisinger/Days Inn Bucknell Invitational Friday and Saturday.
