Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Seton Hall
Men's Soccer Pours it on Early, Defeats Seton Hall 4-0
9/13/2015 5:36:00 PM | Men's Soccer
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Sebastiaan Blickman scored two of Bucknell's four goals in the opening half-hour of the game, and the Bison rebounded in a big way from Friday night's loss to Saint Francis with a 4-0 rout of Seton Hall on Sunday at Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium. Jesse Klug fired home a “Goal of the Year” candidate, Chris Thorsheim added a goal and two assists, and Dan Bank set up the first two goals of the game with beautiful passes as the Bison improved to 3-2-1 on the season.
After a frustrating 3-1 loss at home less than 48 hours earlier, the Bison wasted no time taking command of this one, as they scored on four of their first five shots of the afternoon. Is was 1-0 after only 2:21 of play, as Thorsheim took the ball on a short corner kick and passed to a wide-open Bank on the right flank. Bank delivered a perfect back-post service to Blickman, who headed it home to put the Bison on top.
In the 14th minute, Bank and Klug worked a give-and-go in the middle of the field, and then Bank's through ball found Thorsheim in stride behind the Seton Hall defense. Thorsheim finished the breakaway with a shot inside the left post to make it 2-0.
Just under 11 minutes later, Klug stole the ball from a Seton Hall player near midfield, took it to about 25 yards out and unleashed a rocket to the top right corner that struck the underside of the crossbar and went down over the line.
It was Klug's fourth goal of the year, one in each of the last four games, and the 28th of his career. He is now in sole possession of eighth place on both the Bucknell and Patriot League career scoring lists. Klug also moved into a tie for eighth place on Bucknell's career points list with 70.
At the 30:08 mark, Bucknell made it 4-0 on another terrific strike, this one from Blickman. A throw-in from Tyler Peterson led Thorsheim into the box. Thorsheim slipped a pass over to Blickman at the top of the 18, and Blickman curled in a left-footed shot to the top left corner for his second of the day and third of the season. It was Blickman's second career multi-goal game, with the other coming against Boston University in last year's Patriot League championship game victory.
Meanwhile, Bucknell's defense did face some pressure from Seton Hall (0-4-1). Goalkeeper Mike Lansing faced 20 total shots and eight on frame, and he saved them all for his first clean sheet of the season. Lansing had an 11-save shutout of the Pirates in the only other meeting between these two teams in 2013.
Brandon Barnes stopped three shots for Seton Hall, including a terrific diving save on a header from Jack Zollicoffer that kept it a 4-0 game late in the first half. Zollicoffer nearly set up another goal in the second half with a nice lead pass for Klug, but the shot barely slipped wide of the right post.
“It was a complete 180 from Friday night,” said head coach Brendan Nash after the game. “It was a good response from our guys because we talked Friday postgame, which we never do, and all day yesterday at our training session about good teams have to pass the character test. Everybody knew we didn't play well on Friday night, and we had to see how we would respond. For the first 45 minutes at least, we showed that the guys learned that lesson.”
Bucknell heads to Cincinnati next Saturday to take on Xavier at 2 p.m.
