Men's Soccer Makes 2023 Home Debut Friday Night vs. Robert Morris

Friday, September 1

Lewisburg, Pa.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

Robert Morris

Photo by: Lianne Garrahan

Men's Soccer Makes 2023 Home Debut Friday Night vs. Robert Morris

8/30/2023 6:23:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Robert Morris (1-0-1) at Bucknell (1-1)
When: Friday, Sept. 1, 7 p.m.
Where: Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell at a Glance

After playing its first two games of the 2023 season on the road, the Bison make their Emmitt Field debut on Friday night against Robert Morris. The two sides will be meeting for the first time in five years.
The Bison opened the campaign with a 2-1 win at Mount St. Mary's last Thursday, snapping an 11-match road winless streak in the process. Aidan Kieffer and Charlie Holmes provided the goals in that game, one coming in each half to stake Bucknell to a 2-0 lead.
Kieffer, a sophomore who did not play at all last season, earned the opening-night start and nabbed his first career goal 22 minutes into the match. It came off an assist from freshman Kasper Piela, who recorded his first collegiate point. Kieffer earned Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week honors on Monday.
Holmes' goal was the third of his career, and it was a beautiful strike with his left foot after some hard work by Waldemar Kattrup to hold possession on the right flank.
The Mount St. Mary's win also provided a nice moment for junior goalkeeper Jake Nicoll, who made his first career start and his second career appearance while filling in for Freddie Lapworth, who had to serve a red-card suspension from the final game of the 2022 season at Loyola. Nicoll earned the win with a couple of saves and some good work in his box, and he earned Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week honors for his efforts.
Bucknell's most recent outing was a 2-0 loss at West Virginia on Monday. The Bison played very well for long stretches and limited the Mountaineers to only one shot on target in the first half. But WVU cashed in twice in the second half, with the goals coming in the 54th and 74th minutes. Lapworth tallied five saves in his first action of the season.
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.
The Bison do have a more experienced back line, with seniors Matthew Owusu, MJ Kuczura, 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 Kieffer.
All told, 20 different Bison saw action in each of the first two games as Brandt continues to work with different combinations in his young squad.
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.

Robert Morris at a Glance

While Bucknell will making its home debut on Friday, Robert Morris will be playing on the road for the first time in 2023. The Colonials opened the season with a 5-0 throttling of VMI, followed by a 1-1 draw with Niagara on Sunday.
Robert Morris scored five goals on 12 shots against VMI, with five different scorers entering the sheet. Victor Koah, Alex Lorigny, Gabe Norris, Anass Hadran, and Kyler Miller all hit the back of the net to give new head coach Jonathan Potter a win in his debut.
In Sunday's match with Niagara, the Colonials piled up a 20-6 shot advantage but needed a 68th-minute equalizer from Nolan Hutter to salvage the 1-1 draw.
Robert Morris finished 6-7-3 overall and 4-3-2 in the Horizon League last season. The Colonials were eliminated from the Horizon League Tournament in the quarterfinal round after Oakland prevailed in penalty kicks. RMU managed to play to a 2-2 tie after 110 minutes despite a red card just 16 minutes into the match.
Last year's top scorer, Chase Gilley, returns after sniping seven goals with two assists in 2022, highlighted by a hat trick against Milwaukee. His brother, Logan Gilley, also had a goal and two assists, as RMU outscored their opponents 22-19 over 16 games.
Potter was named head coach last December after seven years as head coach at Presbyterian. He guided the Blue Hose to their first Big South title in 2017.

The Bucknell-Robert Morris Series

Bucknell is 5-1-1 all-time against Robert Morris, including a 2-1 overtime win at Emmitt Field in the most recent encounter in 2018.
Bernie Wright provided the golden goal in that last matchup five seasons ago. Nick King set him up on a 2v1 at the end of a counterattack, and Wright finished in the 100th minute. Stefan Krystman scored off a Michael Pavlick assist just before the halftime whistle, but the Colonials drew level on Oeyvind Skjesol's header off a corner kick in the 53rd minute.
The previous season, Bucknell and Robert Morris finished in a 1-1 tie in Coraopolis.
Bucknell also had an overtime win at RMU in 2002 (3-2), with Scott Visnic ending the proceedings in the 104th minute.
Bucknell won the first two meetings by 1-0 counts in 1991 and 1999 before Robert Morris secured a 1-0 decision in 2000.

Next Up

Bucknell will have a full week off before hosting George Mason on Sept. 8. The Patriots dropped a wild 4-3 game to UMBC in its opener last Thursday. They erased a 3-0 deficit with three straight goals, only to concede a penalty kick just 19 seconds after netting the equalizer.
Bucknell and George Mason will be meeting for just the third time ever and for the first time in Lewisburg. The Bison won 1-0 in overtime in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, and the two teams battled to a 1-1 draw in Fairfax in 2019.