The men's soccer team has possessed the ball well lately, but it has failed to put a tally in the win column in the past four games.
The University of Detroit (2-3) traveled to UB Stadium to face the Bulls in the last game of Buffalo's four-game home stand on Friday. The Titans' backbreaking back-to-back goals in the second half were too much for the Bulls to overcome, as they were defeated by a 2-1 score.
On Sunday, the Bulls looked to end their three-game skid against undefeated Cornell (4-0). The Bulls (1-4-1) had trouble countering the Big Red's attack and failed to score a goal, losing 4-0.
Detroit and Buffalo were both unable to capitalize on scoring chances, as the defenses ruled early. The first half was slow for both sides and ended with a 0-0 tie. That slow pace continued for most of the second half until Detroit's Adam Bedell snuck a goal past Bulls senior goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi in the 73rd minute.
The offensive fireworks were just beginning.
A mere five minutes later, the Titans' Matt Harkema added another goal for Detroit.
"I think our boys did a great job tonight," said head coach David Hesch. "We fought hard; we did what we needed to win; it just didn't go our way. This is a tough one to swallow, but the boys should be proud. They played well."
With 12 minutes to go, the Bulls exhibited a new mentality and finally took advantage of a scoring chance. Less than two minutes after the Titans' second goal, Bulls junior forward Marek Albert found an opening at the top of the box and scored his first goal of the season.
"It really feels good," Albert said. "Our team stuck together, we all worked together, we put one in the net. It was probably one of the most aggressive games we've played. If we keep up the level of soccer we played tonight, I don't see why Sunday we can't score one, two, three more."
Time ran out before Buffalo could put one more in the net to tie the game.
Cornell dominated Sunday's game early and often, taking a 2-0 lead into halftime. The Big Red matched its offensive output in the second half and tacked on two more goals.
"We were playing well enough to win," Hesch said. "We were doing a good enough job holding the ball, but we are just having big mistakes, big blunders during the game.
"Our build-up is not helping us so we're losing the ball and they are coming down our throats. So we've just got to eliminate certain mistakes back on offense so it doesn't hurt us on defense."
The team will travel to the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) (2-4) on Friday. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.
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Photo: Paul Hokanson/UB Athletics
