Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Cornell
Bucknell Men's Soccer Rides Big Second Half to 3-0 Win over Cornell
9/12/2008 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 12, 2008
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Not even a drenching rain could cool off Chris Hennings (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) and the red-hot Bucknell men's soccer team. Hennings scored two goals in a span of 8:30 - his sixth and seventh tallies of the season - to bust open a scoreless deadlock and send the Bison on their way to a 3-0 victory over visiting Cornell Friday night in the second game of the Days Inn Classic.
The victory was Bucknell's first in eight all-time meetings against the Big Red in a series that dates all the way back to 1930. The Bison now have a four-game unbeaten streak and are 3-1-1 on the season, while Cornell, which opened with losses to No. 8 California and Stanford last week, fell to 0-3.
Freshman goalkeeper Tommy Caso (Phoenix, Md./McDonogh) registered his second straight shutout. Caso made four saves and got a little help from teammate Jason Soto (Hackettstown, N.J.Morris Catholic), who acrobatically cleared a shot out of the goal mouth in the 25th minute to keep it a scoreless game.
The Big Red defense returned the favor with 5:30 remaining in the first half, when Conor O'Brien (Mt. Sinai, N.Y./St. Anthony's) had a good look from close range only to have his shot cleared off the line by a defender.
The contest remained scoreless into the early stages of the second half, when Hennings and the Bison offense got going. Just 2:03 into the second stanza, freshman Nader Sawtarie (Bethany, W.Va./The Linsly School) dribbled along the right side and served a perfect centering feed to Hennings, who finished from just outside the 6-yard box. The assist was Sawtarie's first collegiate point.
Cornell amped up its offensive pressure just after the goal, but in the 56th minute the Bison caught them on a counter-attack. Coming out of his own end O'Brien played about a 50-yard ball, hitting Hennings in stride beyond the defense. Hennings streaked in alone from the right side and blasted one into the left side of the net for a 2-0 lead.
The Bison junior almost recorded his second hat trick of the season moments later, but a Cornell defender just got a foot in at the last second to turn aside his shot from close range. Hennings launched a game-high six shots off the bench.
In the 68th minute, Mark Schmiegel (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) took the ball away on the end line to the right of the Cornell goal, then chipped a pass to the back post, where Ross Liberati (Warwick, Md./Tower Hill) came forward to head it in. The goal was Liberati's first of the season and fifth of his career, with all five coming off his head.
Bucknell outshot Cornell 18-9 overall and 12-5 in a dominant second half. Twice more after the Liberati goal the Big Red needed hustling defenders to keep the ball out of their goal. In the 77th minute Bison freshman Ryan Sappington (Barboursville, Va./Shattuck St. Mary's) outran goalkeeper Scott Brody to a loose ball at the top of the 18, took a touch wide to the left and seemingly had an open net for his first career goal, but Matt Stengel made a great play sliding across the wet turf to kick the ball away just before it crossed the line.
In the 88th minute freshman Luke Joyner (Dallas, Texas/J.J. Pearce) had his 30-yard shot headed away by Kyle Parsons with Brody caught out of position.
Bucknell extended its school-record scoring streak to 20 games in the victory, which came on the heels of last Sunday's 2-0 blanking of Penn State.
In the first game of the night, Dylan George's goal with just 8:06 left in regulation helped lift New Hampshire to a 2-2 tie with Hartwick. George also had an assist on Chris Banks' first-half goal for UNH. Steven Amaya and John Paul Boyle scored for the Hawks in an evenly played game.
The Days Inn Classic concludes on Sunday, with Cornell and New Hampshire squaring off at noon, followed by Bucknell and Hartwick at 3 p.m.
