No bye for suddenly mediocre men's soccer

All the UB men's soccer team needed to do was squeak by Northern Illinois on Sunday to secure a first round bye in the Mid-American Conference playoffs. But that victory was elusive, as UB fell short in a hard fought battle against the Huskies, 1-0.

Although the team lacked its leading scorer in sophomore Catchpole, Astudillo is making no excuses for the loss.

"We have to look beyond Lee," Astudillo said. "It's not like we don't have opportunities. We need to train hard and finish chances. It'll be intense play in the MAC tournament. If Byler's name is called he has to perform. Twenty-four guys practice for our team. They have to perform."

The first half of the Bulls' match-up with the Northern Illinois (10-4-2 overall, 3-1-0 MAC) was scoreless as UB slightly out-shot the Huskies 5-4. Unfortunately for the Bulls, the stalemate was shattered two minutes into the second half when the Huskies' midfielder Chris Rufa netted what proved to be the game's only goal.

"I thought it was hard-fought," Astudillo said. "We played with a lot of intensity. This time we started on fire. I turned to (assistant coach John) Hesch and said it should be 3-0 because we had that many opportunities. It was the familiar story of not cashing in on them. It's one of those games where you play hard but it's not there."

Astudillo added that the Bulls played well, despite losing the game.

"We lost on the scoreboard but played well," Astudillo said. "Against Akron we just got beat by another team."

The Bulls out-shot Northern Illinois 10-6 in the contest with sophomore Lucas Martorana and freshman Jon Martin accounted for two shots apiece. Junior goalkeeper Daniel Bell made three saves in the lost.

Rufa and teammate Steve Algozino each had a total of two shots in the contest for the Huskies while Bryan Abdallah assisted Rufa's goal. Steve Goletz played the entire game in the net for the Huskies, registering two saves in the shutout victory.

Astudillo said that Northern Illinois played tough and did a good job cashing in on its opportunities.

"They played hard," Astudillo said. "They are a very good team. They deserve the results. They scored on their chance and we didn't. We had several opportunities."

With their win Sunday, the Huskies are now in second place in the MAC with one more conference game left to play on Nov. 2 against IPFW. The Bulls finished the regular season tied for third in the MAC with Western Michigan. According to the tiebreaker system of the MAC, the Bulls will be the third seed in the tournament due to having a better goal differential than the Broncos.

UB now has two weeks off to prepare for a quarterfinal match against either IPFW or Bowling Green on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. The Bulls' opponent in that game will be determined by a head-to-head game between the two schools on Oct. 30. The winner of the UB game will then go to face second-seeded Northern Illinois.