Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Saint Francis (Pa.)
Men's Soccer Continues Strong Road Play, Tops Saint Francis (Pa.) 2-0
9/3/2014 5:50:00 PM | Men's Soccer
LORETTO, Pa. -- Goals from Jesse Klug and Chris Thorsheim and another clean sheet for Clarke Fox and the defense led the Bucknell men's soccer team to a 2-0 win at Saint Francis (Pa.) on Wednesday afternoon. It was the second straight victory by that score for the Bison, who are now 9-0-1 in their last 10 regular-season road games.
Playing away from home for the first time this season, Bucknell (2-1) scored early in both halves and beat a Red Flash team that was 11-4-4 overall and 5-1-2 at home last season. The Bison also avenged a 1-0 home loss to Saint Francis a year ago.
Fox earned his second straight start in goal after blanking Hartwick 2-0 on Sunday. The defense kept the ball out of harm's way for much of the afternoon, yielding only six total shots and just two on frame. Fox did make one difficult save, a high-flying dive to his left to tip a Ryan Byers shot over the bar. The junior keeper posted his fifth career shutout in seven starts. His personal scoreless streak is now up to 431:21 dating back to last season.
For the second straight game the Bison cashed in on their first good look at the goal. Just 9:38 into the contest Jonathan Grad brought the ball down out of the air and laid it off to his right for Klug, whose sharp-angled shot from the right side ripped the far side netting. It was the first goal of the year for Klug, who collected 10 last season.
Then just 1:50 into the second half Connor Willings lobbed a ball into the penalty area, and with no Bucknell player in the close vicinity the Red Flash defender saw the ball strike his arm as he tried to settle it in front of the goal. Andrew Garcia got a hand on Thorsheim's penalty kick, but not enough to keep it out of the goal, and the Bison had a 2-0 lead. Thorsheim is now 5-for-5 in his career on penalty kicks.
The Bison survived a scary moment just over three minutes later when they turned the ball over with Fox off his line, but Andres Vega's shot toward the gaping net sailed well high. Moments after that, Klug came back the other way and ripped an 18-yard shot that beat Garcia but ricocheted off the crossbar.
Saint Francis applied pressure in the waning minutes of the game, but the Bucknell defense stood tall.
"Saint Francis is a good team and this is a very tough place to play," said head coach Brendan Nash. "We wanted to come out and disrupt their rhythm, and we did a good job limiting their chances. We used our depth, which is important with a quick recovery period before we play again on Friday and Sunday. We are starting to get our legs under us."
Bucknell finished with a 9-6 shot advantage and improved to 10-5-2 all-time against Saint Francis.
Next up for the Bison is a two-game trip to Buffalo this weekend. They will face Canisius on Friday at 7 p.m. and Buffalo on Sunday at 1 p.m.
