Saturday, October 2
Lewisburg, Pa.
12 p.m.
Bucknell University
vs
American
Photo by: Marc Hagemeier
Men's Soccer Faces Lehigh, American in Patriot League Play this Week
9/28/2021 1:31:00 PM | Men's Soccer
Bucknell (2-5-1, 0-1-1 PL) at Lehigh (0-7-1, 0-2-0 PL)
When:Â Wednesday, Sept. 29, 7 p.m.
Where:Â Ulrich Sports Complex, Bethlehem, Pa.
Streaming:Â ESPN+
Live Stats: LehighSports.com
American (2-3-2, 1-1-0 PL) at Bucknell (2-5-1, 0-1-1 PL)
When:Â Saturday, Oct. 2, 12 p.m.
Where:Â Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Streaming:Â ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
Bucknell at a Glance
The Bucknell-Lehigh Series
When:Â Wednesday, Sept. 29, 7 p.m.
Where:Â Ulrich Sports Complex, Bethlehem, Pa.
Streaming:Â ESPN+
Live Stats: LehighSports.com
American (2-3-2, 1-1-0 PL) at Bucknell (2-5-1, 0-1-1 PL)
When:Â Saturday, Oct. 2, 12 p.m.
Where:Â Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Streaming:Â ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
Bucknell at a Glance
- Coming off a tough 2-1 home loss to Army on Saturday, the Bison have a busy week ahead with Patriot League matchups on the road against Lehigh and at home against defending-champion American.
- Bucknell has a point in the Patriot League standings from its 0-0 draw with Lafayette in the league opener, but the Bison and Mountain Hawks will both be hungry for their first conference win on Wednesday. In fact, Lehigh is still looking for its victory of the season after an 0-7-1 start.
- Army and Holy Cross have vaulted to the top of the table with 2-0 starts in Patriot League play. Lafayette (1-0-1) is third on four points, followed by four teams with three.
- The first 15 minutes of each half were trouble spots for Bucknell in Saturday's game against Army. The Black Knights came out flying and generated several good scoring opportunities at the start of the match, but the Bison managed to keep it 0-0 as they settled in later in the half. But coming out of the halftime break Army scored twice in the first 12 minutes to go up 2-0.
- Senior co-captain Patrick O'Hara scored his first goal of the season and seventh of his career in the 69th minute to pull Bucknell within 2-1. The Bison were pressing hard for an equalizer in the late stages but ran out of time.
- Wednesday's game at Lehigh will be Bucknell's seventh on the road out of nine games this season.
- After not scoring in the first two games of the season against top-10 ACC opponents North Carolina and Wake Forest, the Bison have at least one goal in five of their six games since. The lone exception was the 0-0 tie at Lafayette on Sept. 18.
- Sophomore striker Jordan Miller has been kept off the scoresheet in two straight games after scoring five goals in his previous four. Miller is still the Patriot League leader with those five goals, however.
- Miller became the first Bison since Jesse Klug in 2015 to score a goal in four straight games.
- Miller has accounted for five of the team's seven goals this season, with the others coming from O'Hara and Eddie Perez-Pelaez.
- Bucknell has one of its youngest squads in recent memory. The 28-man roster is comprised of four seniors, six juniors, eight sophomores and 10 freshmen. The eight sophomores could really be classified as rookies, as they also went through a full August preseason training camp for the first time.
- Bucknell has three captains for the 2021 season: seniors Alex Clarke and Patrick O'Hara, and sophomore MJ Kuczura. Kuczura is the first sophomore captain in team history. He missed five straight games with an injury before returning on Saturday against Army.
- Lehigh has gotten out to a slow start in 2021 with only a 1-1 draw at Fairleigh Dickinson to show for eight matches. In Patriot League play, Lehigh fell 2-1 at home to Loyola and 2-0 away at American.
- Lehigh ranks second in the Patriot League in total shots with 101, but those attempts have resulted in only four goals (plus a fifth on an own goal).
- Senior Josh Luchini has two of those four goals. Luchini was the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and a Third Team All-American after scoring 11 goals as a sophomore in 2019. Luchini has 20 career goals, four of them coming against Bucknell, including a hat trick in Lehigh's 4-1 win in Bethlehem last season.
- Dominic Flowers and Bratislav Petkovic also have goals for Lehigh, while Euan Forrest has a pair of assists.
- Lehigh has allowed 17 goals in eight contests this fall. Noah Sunderland has started six games in goal and conceded 11 goals while making 27 saves. Blake Koski, son of 30-year Lehigh head coach Dean Koski, has made two starts in net.
The Bucknell-Lehigh Series
- Bucknell is 27-30-10 against Lehigh in a series that dates back to 1960.
- The Mountain Hawks have had the better of play in recent years. The Bison are 0-3-1 in the last four meetings and 1-5-2 in the last eight.
- Wednesday's Bucknell-Lehigh game will be the fourth in a row and eighth in the last 10 played in Bethlehem. Three of those away dates came in the Patriot League Tournament, but in a scheduling quirk, this will be the third straight regular-season meeting between the two teams on Lehigh's home field.
- Lehigh won 4-1 at the Ulrich Sports Complex last march, behind a hat trick from Josh Luchini. Trevor Wiggins scored to bring Bucknell within 2-1 in the 73rd minute, but Luchini tacked on insurance goals in the 75th and 79th minutes.
- In the fall of 2019, Lehigh ended Bucknell's season with a 1-0 verdict in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals. Trevor Koski's goal in the 76th minute was the difference.
- The defending Patriot League champs are 2-3-2 overall and 1-1-0 in league play heading into a Tuesday night road fixture at George Mason.
- After opening conference play with a 2-1 loss at Holy Cross, American bounced back on Saturday with a 2-0 blanking of Lehigh at Reeves Athletic Complex.
- American opened the season with a 2-1 home win over Old Dominion, then dropped two straight to Santa Clara (1-0) and No. 17 Penn State (3-1) before back-to-back draws with Longwood (3-3) and Delaware (1-1).
- American has been outscored 11-10 in seven games, with senior forward David Coly carrying most of the load. Coly has three goals and three assists, while seven other Eagles have one goal apiece.
- Lorenzo Gordon started the first six games of the season in goal, but freshman Dominic Dominguez made his debut on Saturday against Lehigh and made four saves en route to the clean sheet.
- Head coach Zach Samol is in his third year on the AU sideline. After being picked to finish ninth in the preseason poll last spring, his team pulled off road wins over Loyola and Lafayette to win the Patriot League title. The Eagles then knocked off Jacksonville in penalty kicks after a wild 3-3 draw in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. American then got an early goal from Coly to take the lead on No. 1 seed Clemson in the second round, but the Tigers rallied with two second-half goals to win 2-1.
- American was 2-1-2 in league play last spring, with the only loss coming at Bucknell.
- Bucknell is 8-15-3 all-time against American, but the Bison are 2-0-2 in the last four meetings.
- Bucknell's lone victory in the abbreviated spring 2021 season was a 2-1 verdict against the eventual league champs. Patrick O'Hara headed in Matt Thorsheim's corner kick 11 minutes into the match to stake the Bison to a 1-0 lead. David Coly converted a penalty kick for American five minutes later, but in the 54th minute Trevor Wiggins headed in Colin Eifert's long throw for the winning goal.
- The Eagles' last victory over Bucknell was a 2-1 double-overtime win in the 2016 Patriot League Tournament semifinals in D.C.
- The Bison have another two-game week next week, with both games on the road in New York State. Bucknell visits Binghamton on Tuesday, Oct. 5, then travels to Colgate the following Saturday.
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