Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
La Salle
Three-Goal Second Half Sends Bucknell Men's Soccer Past La Salle, 3-1
9/3/2010 8:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 3, 2010
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Seniors Ross Liberati (Warwick, Md./Tower Hill) and Tommy McCabe (Sarasota, Fla./Cardinal Mooney) had a hand in all three second-half goals to help the Bison men's soccer team storm past La Salle Friday night, 3-1 at McCarthy Stadium. Liberati had two goals and an assist, while McCabe fell one shy of the Bucknell single-game record with three assists as the Bison responded well after a tough overtime game against Villanova just 48 hours earlier.
Unlike in the Villanova game when Bucknell scored the opening goal, this time the Bison conceded first when Glenroy Chapman broke loose for a score in the 23rd minute.
Trailing 1-0 at the half to a La Salle side making its season debut, Bucknell coach Brendan Nash asked his team to move the ball quicker on the ground, and the adjustment worked as the Explorers committed a couple of costly fouls in dangerous spots. The Bison scored all three goals on set plays in a span of only 14:04.
The first came in the 59th minute when Liberati finished inside the box after a McCabe free kick. For Liberati, a senior defender, it was his sixth career goal but his first that wasn't a header. He would repeat the feat a little while later, but first sophomore Josh Plump (Millburn, N.J./Millburn) produced the go-ahead goal off a corner kick. McCabe sent the corner kick into the box, where Liberati flicked it over to Plump for his first tally of the season and third of his career. It was one of a match-high five shots for Plump in 40 minutes of action.
The Plump goal came at 69:11, and only 3:12 later Liberati finished off another set piece for his first career multi-goal game. This time McCabe played a free kick into Luke Joyner (Dallas, Texas/J.J.Pearce), who headed the ball back across the box for Liberati, who slid to get a toe on the ball and send it over the line.
McCabe's three assists were a career high, and fell one shy of the Bucknell record of four assists in a game, set by Dave Rath against Lycoming in 1967.
The Bison nearly added a fourth goal when freshman Josh Butzke (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) made a great pass to Ryan Sappington (Barboursville, Va./Shattuck-St. Mary's), but La Salle keeper Kyle Quigley made a terrific save.
Quigley stopped 10 shots on the night, while Bison keeper Tommy Caso (Phoenix, Md./McDonogh) made five, including a save on a breakaway 10 minutes into the game.
After the game Nash heaped praise on Sappington for his intense work rate and senior co-captain Travis Rand (Westbrook, Maine/Westbrook) for getting the defense organized after the early goal. Nash went a little deeper on his bench as well, using five reserves. One of them, freshman Joe Meyer (Sykesville, Md./McDonogh) made his collegiate debut.
Bucknell finished with a 20-13 edge in total shots and a 14-6 advantage in shots on goal. The Bison had six corner kicks to two for La Salle.
The Bison improved to 5-2-3 all-time against La Salle, a former East Coast Conference rival, and are unbeaten (2-0-3) in the five meetings dating back to 2005.
Bucknell returns to action next weekend at the Penn State Classic. The Bison play Penn State on Friday at 7:30 p.m., then take on Ohio State on Sunday at noon.
