Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Lafayette
Record Crowd Sees Bucknell Men's Soccer Beat Lafayette on Joyner's Late Goal
10/30/2009 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Oct. 30, 2009
| Highlights
LEWISBURG, Pa. - It was a night of records for the Bucknell men's soccer team, which parlayed a Luke Joyner (Dallas, Texas/J.J. Pearce) goal in the 78th minute into a big 1-0 victory over Lafayette before a national Fox Soccer Channel audience Friday night at Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium. A facility-record 1,464 fans turned out to see the Bison win their program-record 14th match of the season, and more importantly, at 5-1 in the Patriot League, Bucknell clinched a spot in the conference tournament.
Now 14-4, the Bison eclipsed the previous record of 13 wins, set by the 2002 team (13-5-1). They have now won nine of their last 10 contests, and only 16-0 Akron, the nation's No. 1-ranked team, has more wins than Bucknell this season.
Bucknell has temporarily taken over the top spot on the Patriot League table with 15 points. American, which held a one-point lead over the Bison entering the day, can reclaim the No. 1 position with a victory at Holy Cross on Saturday afternoon.
For Lafayette (9-6-2, 3-3-0) the loss proved costly in terms of postseason positioning. Lehigh improved to 3-2-1 and jumped over the Leopards with a 2-0 win over Navy on Friday night, while Colgate joined Lafayette with nine points after a 4-1 throttling of Army.
While the record crowd went home happy, the Bucknell-Lafayette match will not be remembered as a stylish affair. Each team controlled the run of play for a half - the Bison in the first and Lafayette for most of the second - but there were very few quality scoring chances or even passing combinations from either side.
The Bison looked good early, outshooting Lafayette 7-4 over the first 45 minutes. Bucknell's best chance came at the half-hour mark, when defender Andrew Powell (Charlton, Mass./St. John's) came forward on a free kick and had the ball on his foot at the back post, but Lafayette keeper Philip Nelson was there to snuff out the play.
Bucknell was playing with a depleted back line in this one, as senior co-captain and lock-down defender Patrick Selwood (Darnestown, Md./The Heights School) was relegated to his dorm room after coming down with an illness earlier in the day.
With the athletic Powell marking lightning-quick striker B.J. Glenn, who scored two goals in his last appearance in Lewisburg, Bucknell did not yield a single shot on goal in the first half. The Leopards amped up the pressure in the second half, however, and only three minutes into the period Kyle Scharfenberg scorched a shot just over the bar from 20 yards out.
Ten minutes later the Bison committed a foul just outside the 18, leading to a dangerous free kick, but Sam Feldbaum's shot deflected off the Bucknell wall.
Things got even more tenuous later in the second half when Powell went down with an injury and had to come off for about 11 minutes. Freshman Vinny Cinotti (Sparta, N.J./Sparta) filled in capably, however, and with the exception of one Glenn cross that just missed connecting with a sliding teammate at the back post, the Bison defense held strong the rest of the way.
Conor O'Brien (Mt. Sinai, N.Y./St. Anthony's), the Patriot League scoring leader who came into the night with points in 17 of his last 20 games, began to get more involved around the 70-minute mark. He curled a beautiful long ball to the pack post that barely missed a teammate and may have even grazed the post on the way by.
Then O'Brien was right in the middle of the whole sequence that led up to the game's only goal. With only about 13 minutes showing on the clock, right back Travis Rand (Westbrook, Maine/Westbrook) was on the receiving end of a nice pass from Joyner, putting him 1-vs.-1 with a defender down the right flank. Rand got deep and slipped a pass in the box to O'Brien, whose one-timer skipped squarely off the left post.
That led to a corner kick, however, and O'Brien sent the corner into Joyner, whose running header from the top of the 6-yard box found the net. The Leopards came into the game riding three straight shutouts and had a league-high 10 on the season.
The O'Brien shot that led to the corner and the Joyner goal represented Bucknell's only two shots of the half.
It was Joyner's third goal of the season and second in as many games, while O'Brien picked up his league-leading eighth assist of the season. O'Brien, who also has 10 goals this year, came into the game as one of only three Division I players in the nation leading his conference in both goals and assists. The eight assists equal his career-high total from last season and is the seventh-highest single-season figure in program history. He also moved into ninth place on Bucknell's single-season points list with 28.
The Joyner goal also extended Bucknell's national-best goal-scoring streak to 23 games. The Bison now have a goal in 51 of their last 52 games dating back to 2007.
After the goal, Bucknell did an excellent job keeping the ball deep in the Lafayette corners. The Bison were able to burn about four minutes in one late stretch, keeping a free kick, a corner kick and a throw-in deep in the right corner. Lafayette finally broke out with about 45 seconds left but could not get anything dangerous. With about 20 seconds left Blake Fink let go a shot from 20 yards out but Sean King (Medford, N.J./Shawnee) sacrificed his body to block the shot. Lafayette chased down the loose ball and served a high, hopeful floater into the middle of the box, and when keeper Tommy Caso (Phoenix, Md./McDonogh) came out to grab it with 10 seconds left, the match was settled and the large crowd voiced its appreciation for what is now the winningest team in the 80-year history of the program.
It was Bucknell's ninth shutout of the season and the seventh for Caso, who made one save on the night. Of the nine clean sheets, seven have now come by 1-0 margins. Caso's seven shutouts moved him into the top 10 (t-9th) on the Bucknell single-season chart.
Lafayette finished with a 13-9 shot advantage, including 9-2 in the second half. Bucknell led 5-3 in corners, while the Leopards led in fouls, 17-11.
Bucknell will have a chance to add to its win total next Friday, when it wraps up the 2009 regular season at home against Lehigh. The 7 p.m. contest will be preceded by Senior Night festivities.
