Men's Soccer Visits Holy Cross Saturday

Saturday, October 14

Worcester, Mass.

12 p.m.

Bucknell University

Holy Cross

Photo by: Lauren Medeiros

10/12/2023 11:43:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Bucknell (1-8-2, 0-4-1 PL) at Holy Cross (4-7-2, 1-3-1 PL)
When: Saturday, Oct. 14, 12 p.m.
Where: Linda Johnson Smith Soccer Stadium, Worcester, Mass.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: GoHolyCross.com

Bucknell at a Glance

The Bison hit the road for the second straight weekend, visiting Holy Cross on Saturday at noon. Bucknell's most impressive win of the 2022 season came against the Crusaders, and the Bison will be looking to replicate that performance on Saturday.
Bucknell enters the weekend 0-4-1 in Patriot League play, but the Bison are only three points out of the sixth and final postseason spot with four rounds of conference action still to come. Holy Cross is one of three teams tied for sixth place on four points. Boston University and Loyola are the co-leaders with 13 points, followed by Lafayette with 10.
The Bison dropped a 1-0 verdict at Colgate last Saturday. The match was a defensive struggle with only 15 total shot attempts, but Aidan Davock found the breakthrough for the Raiders in the 54th minute.
The Colgate game came on the heels of Bucknell's biggest offensive outburst of the season in a 3-3 tie with American at Emmitt Field. Bucknell used an 84th-minute equalizer from Zane Domsohn to salvage a point in that wild affair. The Bison led twice in that game, as Charlie Holmes scored the opening goal on a penalty kick, and Brennan Gac scored on a diving header late in the half to make it 2-1. The Eagles scored twice in the second stanza to take the lead, but Domsohn headed in Marco Valentic's corner kick with 6:34 remaining
Bucknell has 10 goals in 11 matches this season, including a team-high three from Holmes. Domsohn has two, and Gac, Matthew Owusu, Waldemar Kattrup, Ben Sheffield, and Aidan Kieffer have one each. Nine different Bison have an assist, with Valentic leading the way with two.
Domsohn, a sophomore striker, now has five career goals, putting him only 47 behind his father, Dave, a 1989 Bucknell graduate who is the program's all-time leading scorer and a member of the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame.
Coach Dave Brandt has gone deep into his bench throughout the campaign. The Bison have averaged 20.4 players per game this season, with a high of 24 against Loyola.
It is a young group, as well. Of the 27 players on the roster, 18 are freshmen and sophomores and only four are seniors.
Sophomore center back Jackson Sullivan is the lone Bison to play all 990 minutes this season.
Bucknell's win came in the season-opener at Mount St. Mary's, as Kieffer and Holmes found the back of the net in a 2-1 victory. The Bison also picked up a hard-fought 0-0 draw against George Mason on Sept. 8.
Freddie Lapworth has started eight of the 11 games in goal this season, and his backup, Jake Nicoll, is 1-1-1 in his three starts. Nicoll presided over the Mount St. Mary's win with Lapworth serving a red-card suspension from the last game of the 2022 season, and Nicoll was back between the pipes for the two most recent fixtures with Lapworth down with an injury.
Dave Brandt is Bucknell's 14th full-time head coach and just the third dating back to 1967. Brandt brought with him a remarkable career record of 354-86-40 in stints at Messiah, Navy, and Hope. His .779 winning percentage was 20th-best in NCAA men's soccer history among coaches from all divisions with a minimum of 10 years. Brandt won six Division III national championships at Messiah and led Navy to the 2013 Patriot League title and an NCAA Tournament first-round win.

Holy Cross at a Glance

The Crusaders have been a very good home side this season with a 3-2-2 record in Worcester. That includes a wild 5-4 win over UMass-Lowell in their most recent home match on Oct. 3, when Holy Cross rallied from a 4-2 halftime deficit with three second-half goals.
Holy Cross dropped a 2-0 decision at Loyola last Saturday. Jordy Luchies scored on a penalty kick in the 33rd minute, and Charlie Herley added an insurance marker in the 87th.
The Crusaders started league play with a 1-1 draw with American and a good 2-0 road win over Army. They have since fallen to Boston University (3-0), Lafayette (1-0), and Loyola.
Holy Cross has been outscored 24-12 in 13 contests. Ten of the team's 12 goals have come from three players: Evan Jones (4), Ethan Gill (4), and Matt McGonigle (2). Jonathan Klein and Ivor Teagle lead the team with three assists apiece.
Jones was the 2021 Patriot League Rookie of the Year and is a two-time Second Team All-Patriot League selection. He has 17 goals in two-plus seasons in Worcester.
Tristan Stephani has started 12 games in goal and has 37 saves with 19 goals against.
Freshman midfielder Marques Nana-Sinkam is the nephew of former Bucknell standout linebacker Sam Nana-Sinkam '10.
Head coach Marco Koolman is in his 12th season at the helm of the Crusaders.

The Bucknell-Holy Cross Series

Bucknell is 15-11-6 in 32 previous meetings with Holy Cross. The teams first clashed in the Patriot League's inaugural season in 1990.
The Bison and Crusaders squared off once per season – they have never met in the postseason – all the way up through 2019. They were in opposite divisions in the COVID-modified spring 2021 season and did not play.
The Bison are 8-2-3 in their last 13 games against Holy Cross. The last two meetings have both ended in 4-1 scorelines, with Holy Cross winning at home in 2021 and Bucknell returning the favor on Senior Day at Emmitt Field last season.
Zane Domsohn scored twice and Charlie Holmes and Eddie Perez-Pelaez once each in last year's game in Lewisburg. Holmes finished a breakaway in the 25th minute, but an own goal just 90 seconds later leveled the match at 1-1. Domsohn quickly answered off a long ball played over the top from goalkeeper Freddie Lapworth, and then Perez-Pelaez and Domsohn tacked on two more in the final nine minutes of the match.
Bucknell has scored in 18 straight games against Holy Cross, dating back to a 0-0 draw in Lewisburg in 2003.

Next Up

Bucknell will play at home twice next week. St. Bonaventure comes to Emmitt Field for a non-league game on Tuesday evening, and then league-leading Boston University will be in in town for Senior Day on Saturday.