The UB men's soccer struck early and never looked back as they defeated Colgate (0-1-0) in their season opener by a final of 3-0 at RAC Field on Wednesday night.
The 2004 version of the Bulls looked nothing like the team that last year was shut out in the final seven games.
"All that work over the summer paid off," said Assistant coach Dave Hesch as he gave sophomore Erik Jaanimagi a congratulatory hug.
Just a third of the way through the first half, Andrew Butler sent a long cross deep into Colgate's zone to set up Braden Byler for the first of his two goals, putting the Bulls on the board for the first time this year.
Byler was active in only three games last year. He is one of many young starters on the team's 2004-05 roster.
"I think the difference between last year and this year is that we were not able to get much help from the first year players. The sophomores are really coming into their own," said head coach John Astudillo.
The Bulls let only five minutes run off the clock before Jeff Martinko scored their second goal of the game. Martinko knocked in the rebound left by Colgate goalkeeper Doug Litvak.
"In the air. I don't know that we won one ball. We won a lot of balls in the back but at midfield we didn't win any and in the forward line we just lost the air war," said Astudillo. "I think we brought it under control. We brought a lot of people into the offense and there were a lot of good things that happened tonight as a result."
UB outshot Colgate 14-8 thanks in part to a productive game from Brian Knapp, who tallied two assists.
"We had a lot of people from the bench that were coming in and contributing greatly right off the bat," Knapp said.
Braden Byler added an insurance goal in the 64th minute, and for the remaining 26 minutes, it seemed as though the three-goal lead would not have been enough.
"We lost some momentum, especially after we scored the goal. Things seemed a little crazy then all of a sudden we start playing longer balls and losing them especially up in the air," said Astudillo. "We tried to do clever things, whereas in the first half we were going simple, going hard and we got away from that. Everyone was trying to assist on the goal or score the goal and we can't have that."
The lead stood up, though, as sophomore goalkeeper Daniel Bell recorded the first shutout of his career. Bell, and the rest of Buffalo's defense, held on to the lead, and the win for UB.
Next up for the Bulls is the Fall Classic, played at home on RAC field. They will play Hartford on September 2.
