Men's Soccer Hosts Mount St. Mary's Thursday in 2024 Home Opener

Thursday, August 29

Lewisburg, Pa.

6 p.m.

Bucknell University

Mount St. Mary's

Men's Soccer Hosts Mount St. Mary's Thursday in 2024 Home Opener

8/27/2024 12:45:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Mount St. Mary's (0-1-1) at Bucknell (1-0)
When: Thursday, Aug. 29, 6 p.m.
Where: Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

2024 Season Preview:

Bucknell at a Glance

Looking to build on last week's season-opening victory at Robert Morris, the Bison play their 2024 home opener on Thursday evening against Mount St. Mary's.
Bucknell's 92nd season of men's soccer started on a bright note, as the Bison were propelled by two early goals in a 2-0 away win at Robert Morris last Thursday. The team's very first shot of the season hit the back of the net, as freshman Drew Roskos headed in David Krumov's free kick in the 17th minute. Bucknell made it 2-0 in the 30th minute when Cade McGrath finished a cross from Jack Lucas.
Roskos became the first Bucknell freshman to score in a season opener since Eddie Perez-Palaez against FDU in 2019.
Goalkeeper Freddie Lapworth tallied seven saves en route to the shutout. That was the second-highest save total of his career. He stopped 12 shots in a 2-1 loss at eventual national champion Syracuse in 2022.
The Bison have had some outstanding teams over the last two decades, but oddly they have not started a season 2-0 since 2002. That year, Bucknell debuted with road victories over Robert Morris and Binghamton on the way to a 13-win season.
The 2024 Bison have plenty of new faces with seven freshmen and four transfers on the roster. The freshman Roskos and transfers Cohen Weaver (Penn State), Jimmy Pombor (Lock Haven), and Winston Oziri (Northumbria in U.K.) all started against Robert Morris. Transfer Cade Whitmire (Tulsa) and freshmen Gianluca Marroni, Matt McLeod, and Noah Handzel saw action off the bench.
Bucknell's most experience comes in the back, where the junior Lapworth backs up a defensive trio of senior Aidan Lawlor and juniors Ben Sheffield and Jackson Sullivan. McGrath, a junior, and sophomore Jack Lucas bring experience to the two wing back positions, and senior Jack Roberto is also a veteran in the defensive third.
Offensively, only four returning goal-scorers are back this year, but the Bison have plenty of depth up front. Nine substitutes were used at Robert Morris, with five of them in attacking positions.
The Bison finished 2-10-4 last season, when they seemed to be punished for every little mistake in the back. There were a number of games where Bucknell controlled the bulk of the possession, only to fall a goal short. The Bison held the opposition to single-digit shot attempts nine times but went just 1-5-3 in those games. Seven of the 10 losses came by one goal, including heartbreakers against Patriot League rivals Navy, Holy Cross, and Boston University where the deciding tally came in the 87th minute or later.
Loyola was picked as the preseason favorite in the Patriot League, with defending champion Boston University a close second. The Bison were tied for ninth in the preseason poll.
Dave Brandt is Bucknell's 14th full-time head coach and just the third dating back to 1967. Brandt, who is now in his third season at Bucknell, brought with him a remarkable career record of 354-86-40 in stints at Messiah, Navy, and Hope. 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.

Mount St. Mary's at a Glance

The Mountaineers come in with an 0-1-1 record, and this will be their first away match of the season. After falling 1-0 to Binghamton on opening night, Mount St. Mary's finished in a 3-3 draw with Robert Morris on Sunday.
The Mount conceded in the 83rd minute in the loss to Binghamton.
Freshman Abou Cherif played a starring role in Sunday's game with his first two collegiate goals. Mount St. Mary's trailed Robert Morris 1-0 at the half, surged ahead with three goals in 15 minutes, but then gave up two goals in a five-minute span later in the second half.
Junee Lee also scored for Mount St. Mary's, in addition to the brace from Cherif, a 6'4" forward from Philadelphia. Lee was the team's scoring leader last season with three goals.
Mount St. Mary's finished 2-10-3 overall and 2-6-2 in the MAAC last season. Both of its wins came at home against Fairfield and Canisius.
Brett Teach is in his first season as head coach at The Mount. Teach had been an assistant coach at VCU since 2010, and prior to that had head coaching stints at the Division I (Georgia State), Division II (Tusculum), Division III (LaGrange, Oglethorpe), and NAIA (Auburn-Montgomery) levels.
Teach has a 45-man roster with 29 newcomers in 2024.

The Bucknell-Mount St. Mary's Series

Bucknell is 6-8 all-time against Mount St. Mary's, with five of those losses coming In succession from 1994-98.
With the exception of the COVID year in 2020, the Bison and Mountaineers have met in each of the last five seasons since Mount St. Mary's reinstated its program after a five-year hiatus. Bucknell has won three of those five recent matchups, including a 2-1 win in Emmitsburg in the 2023 season opener.
In last year's game, Aidan Kieffer scored in the 22nd minute and Charlie Holmes in the 57th to give Bucknell a 2-0 lead. Dominik Topolsky pulled The Mount within 2-1 in the 65th, and the Bison held on despite waiting out a pair of delays in the final four minutes, first for a thunderstorm and then when a snake wandered onto the pitch.
These two teams last met in Lewisburg in 2022, and Mount St. Mary's prevailed 3-1 thanks to two late goals. MJ Kuczura scored eight minutes in for the Bison, but Jesus Salazar's direct free kick in the 87th minute snapped a 1-1 tie. Ondrej Soukup made it 3-1 on a long-range attempt two minutes later.