Men's Soccer Back on Road Monday to Face West Virginia

Monday, August 28

Morgantown, W.Va.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

West Virginia

Photo by: Lianne Garrahan

Men's Soccer Back on Road Monday to Face West Virginia

8/25/2023 2:10:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Bucknell (1-0) at West Virginia (1-0)
When: Monday, Aug. 28, 7 p.m.
Where: Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium, Morgantown, W.Va.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: WVUSports.com

Bucknell at a Glance

Fresh off an opening-night 2-1 win at Mount St. Mary's, the Bucknell men's soccer team heads back on the road Monday to face West Virginia for just the second time in program history.
Second-year head coach Dave Brandt has a young side in 2023, with 10 freshmen and eight sophomores on the 27-man roster. The team is particularly green up front, with four sophomores and four freshmen leading the corps of forwards. Two of those rookies, Kasper Piela and Jakub Samelko, started on opening night, and Piela recorded his first point with an assist.
The Bison do have a more experienced back line, with seniors Matthew Owusu, MJ Kaczura, and Collin Murphy all in the rotation. Sophomores Ben Sheffield and Jackson Sullivan both saw extensive time last season, and on opening night they flanked another sophomore center back in Aidan Kieffer, who marked a memorable Bucknell debut by scoring the team's first goal of the season in the 22nd minute at Mount St. Mary's.
All told, 20 different Bison saw action in the opener as Brandt continues to work with different combinations in his young squad.
Sophomore forward Charlie Holmes, a regular starter as a rookie last season, pocketed his third career goal early in the second half on Thursday to stake the Bison to a 2-0 lead. That proved to be the game-winner when the Mount scored on a free kick later in the game. Waldemar Kattrup recorded the assist on the goal.
Sophomore Freddie Lapworth is back in goal after starting nine games last season. Lapworth on Thursday had to serve a red-card suspension dating back to the final game of 2022, but backup netminder Jake Nicoll played well in his first career start and earned the win.
Bucknell went 3-12-2 in a rebuilding year in 2022 but played very well down the stretch. The Bison dropped a hard-fought 2-1 verdict at No. 4 Syracuse, the eventual national champion, then finished up with a 4-1 win over Holy Cross and draws with Colgate and Loyola, two of the Patriot League's better sides.
Bucknell was picked ninth in the Patriot League preseason poll. Defending champion Navy was chosen as the preseason favorite, just four points ahead of Boston University and five ahead of American.
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.

West Virginia at a Glance

The Mountaineers debuted with a 3-0 home win over Cal Baptist on Thursday. Marcus Caldeira scored early and late, and Sergio Ors Navarro tallied in the 56th minute.
Caldeira, now a sophomore, led the team in scoring with five goals as a rookie in 2022. Senior Ryan Crooks also logged 14 points with four goals and a team-high six assists.
West Virginia finished 7-7-4 overall and 3-1-4 in the Sun Belt Conference last season. In the league tournament, the Mountaineers defeated Coastal Carolina 1-0 before falling to No. 2 Kentucky 3-0 in the semifinals.
This year's squad was picked third in the Sun Belt preseason poll, behind defending champion Kentucky and Marshall.
Fifth-year head coach Dan Stratford has an 87-17-16 record at WVU.

The Bucknell-West Virginia Series

This is only the second all-time meeting between Bucknell and West Virginia. The other was a 1-0 Mountaineers win in Morgantown on Aug. 29, 2006. Paul Cunningham scored the game's lone goal midway through the first half. The goal came off a corner kick delivery from Dan Stratford, who is now the WVU head coach.
Joey Kuterbach made six saves in goal that night for the Bison, who would go on to win the Patriot League championship and defeat George Mason in the first round of the NCAA Tournament later that season.

Next Up

After starting the campaign with two straight road games, the Bison will be home for the next two, facing Robert Morris (Sept. 1) and George Mason (Sept. 8) on each of the next two Friday nights.
Robert Morris blasted VMI 5-0 in its home opener on Thursday and will host Niagara on Sunday before traveling to Lewisburg.