Oct. 16, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The red-hot Bucknell men's soccer team returns to Patriot League play on Saturday, traveling to Army for a 1 p.m. match at West Point's Clinton Field. The Bison have won five straight by a combined 11-2 differential and now stand at 10-3 on the season. The Black Knights, on the other hand, are looking to shake a 10-game losing streak dating back to an opening-night win over NJIT.
Army will be offering a live Webcast of the game at www.goarmysports.com.
Bucknell is coming off a 2-1 overtime win at Marquette on Tuesday. Freshman CK Kumah scored with two minutes remaining in the second OT period, and Kumah actually has the game-winning goal in each of the last two contests. He scored the lone goal in Bucknell's 1-0 home win over Holy Cross last Saturday.
The five-game winning streak is the team's longest since 2000, and the Bison have not won six games in a row since 1983. Bucknell is currently one of six Division I teams in the nation with 10 or more wins. The others are No. 1 Akron (12-0), No. 8 Monmouth (11-0-1), No. 3 UC Santa Barbara (10-2-1), Green Bay (10-1-2) and Maryland-Baltimore County (10-2).
The Bison, who are currently ranked third in the NSCAA Mid-Atlantic Region poll, are looking to reach 11 wins for the seventh time in program history. The school record is 13 wins (13-5-1), set in 2002.
Additionally, the Bison are hoping to help head coach Brendan Nash reach a milestone of his own on Saturday. The victory over Marquette was the 99th of Nash's career. He is 99-79-28 in 11 seasons at Bucknell.
All eight Patriot League teams will engage in intraconference action this weekend. While Bucknell and Army will start at 1 p.m., the three other games are all slated for Saturday night. American travels to Navy, Colgate plays at Lafayette and Lehigh is at Holy Cross.
The Patriot League standings are tightly jumbled in the middle. American is at the top of the table with a 3-0 record and nine points, while Army sits at the bottom at 0-3. The other six teams are all 2-1 (Bucknell, Navy, Lafayette) or 1-2 (Lehigh, Holy Cross, Colgate).
BISON MEN'S SOCCER NOTEBOOK
Coverage
- Click HERE to watch Bucknell-Army live video Webcast via goarmysports.com (suscription required).
- Click HERE to follow Bucknell-Army live stats via goarmysports.com.
Bucknell vs. Army Series Notes
- Army leads the all-time series, 17-11, however Bucknell has had the better of the recent series.
- The Bison have won nine of the last 10 after Army had taken a 16-2 series lead. Eight of those Cadets wins came between 1931-43. As Patriot League rivals, the Bison lead 11-9.
- Last season at Emmitt Field, Bucknell defeated Army 1-0 on Mark Schmiegel's goal 2:20 into sudden-death overtime. The Bison played their school-record fifth straight overtime match and outshot the Black Knights 19-4. Bucknell's defense did not allow a shot on frame all night.
- Army's last win over the Bison was a 1-0 decision at West Point in 2005, and its last win in Lewisburg came in 1998 (2-1).
About Army
- The Black Knights won their season opener, 2-1 over NJIT at home. They have struggled since then, however, dropping 10 straight decisions by a combined 23-4 margin.
- Last month Army suffered back-to-back 1-0 overtime defeats to service academy rivals Air Force and Navy. Both games were on the road.
- Army's last five matches have been away from West Point, but on Saturday it begins a run of four out of five games at home to end the regular season.
- In their last outing, the Black Knights fell 4-2 at Colgate on Saturday. Bryan Connolly tied the game at 1-1 with a penalty kick in the 33rd minute, and after Army fell behind 2-1 just before halftime, Peter Campbell tied it again off an assist from Mitch Johnson. But the Raiders scored twice in a four-minute span inside 15 minutes remaining to pull out the win.
- Connolly and Cole Dietz both have two goals and one assist for a team-high five points on the season. Campbell and Tanner Robertson have the other two goals. Michael Kim leads tge team with 20 shot attempts.
- Nick Alexander has played every minute in goal thus far and has 56 saves and 24 goals against in 11 games.
About the Bison
- Bucknell has played excellent soccer over the few weeks, reeling off five straight wins over Binghamton (1-0), Navy (1-0), St. Peter's (5-1), Holy Cross (1-0) and Marquette (2-1 OT).
- Tuesday's win over Marquette was Bucknell's first overtime victory on the road since its 2006 NCAA Tournament win at George Mason.
- Both goals in the Marquette win came from freshmen. Brendan Burgdorf put the Bison up 1-0 in the 65th minute, but the Golden Eagles tied it with just 3:56 to play on a goal from Andrew Krynski. With two minutes left in the second overtime period, CK Kumah made a great individual move to beat two defenders on the end line to the left of the goal, then he fired a shot off the right post and in to win the game.
- Coupled with a 1-0 verdict over Syracuse at the Mayor's Cup on Sept. 13, the Bison are now 2-0 this season and 37-26-3 all-time against teams from the Big East.
- Bucknell played a school-record eight overtime games last season, but the Marquette game was its first this season that required extra time.
- Tommy Caso made five saves against Marquette, including one with two seconds left in regulation and another in overtime. Caso is this week's Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Week. His 0.96 goals-against average ranks second in the Patriot League.
- With five goals and 11 points on the season, Burgdorf is tied with Colgate's Mike Reidy for the top spot in both categories among all Patriot League freshmen. Overall, Burgdorf is fourth in the league in goals per game and sixth in points per game.
- Conor O'Brien continues to lead the Patriot League in scoring with 22 points on nine goals and four assists. His five game-winning goals are also most in the league. In fact, no other Patriot League player has more than five total goals this season.
- O'Brien and Kumah rank second and fourth, respectively, in the Patriot League in total shot attempts. O'Brien has 58, Kumah 37.
- Nine of Bucknell's 10 victories this season have come by one goal, including six by 1-0 scores.
- Despite all of the 1-0 wins, Bucknell is the Patriot League's highest-scoring team at 1.62 goals per game. American is second at 1.55. The Bison also lead the Patriot League in goals-against average at 0.91, just ahead of Lafayette (0.95).
- On Oct. 28, 2008, Bucknell suffered a 1-0 loss to Colgate. That ended a run of 28 straight games with a goal, the longest such streak in Division I soccer at the time. The Bison immediately started a new streak, and since that Colgate game they have scored in 18 games in a row, including all 13 this season. The Bison have scored at least once in 46 of their last 47 games dating back to the 2007 season.
- In its first nine wins of the season, Bucknell had outscored its opponents 10-0 in the first half. The Marquette game was the first time this season the Bison allowed a second-half score in a win.
- At 10-3 this season, Bucknell is off to its best 13-game mark since the 2002 squad started 10-2-1.
Looking Ahead
- Bucknell has a big non-conference home game on Wednesday night against Penn State. The Nittany Lions are currently ranked No. 24 nationally and are now 8-3-2 on the season after Wednesday's 2-0 win over Lafayette. The game, which will be broadcast live on Bison Vision, will be Bucknell's first home game against Penn State since 1997 (a 2-1 overtime loss). Last season, the Bison defeated Penn State (2-0) for the first time since 1975.
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