Road warriors

As Simon and Garfunkel once sang, "I wish I was homeward bound." The men's and women's soccer teams will not have that wish granted anytime soon as both are in the midst of long road trips. While the men are building momentum, the women are standing still.

"It's taking its toll," said women's head coach Jean-A Tassy. "We still manage it. It's just the idea that if we drop a couple of goals early then we will in be the better situation to win the match."

The men, stopping in Pittsburgh on Sunday, are finally starting to hit their stride with a 1-0 win against Duquesne (2-4-3). After dropping their first two games of the season, the Bulls have won seven of their last nine, including five overtime games, to improve their record to 7-3-1.

Sophomore forward Dan Bulley scored 18 minutes into the second half to ensure that this game did not go into overtime, but head coach John Astudillo thought the game against Duquesne shouldn't have even been that close.

"This wasn't as close as the score would suggest," Astudillo said. "We really were up... I thought our shots on goal were right on, especially in the first half. I felt that we had a good portion of the attack, a good portion of the ball, good possession."

Even though both teams were able to fire off 12 shots apiece, the Bulls were able to get five on net, compared to the Dukes' one. Senior goalkeeper Daniel Bell, the school's all-time wins leader earned the shutout, his 34th victory as a Bull.

Astudillo still believes there is room for improvement from his club. The Bulls feature 14 new faces on the 24-man roster.

"By and large we just weren't finishing our opportunities," Astudillo said. "Not a lot of opportunities are turning into goals, but we're turning them into very dangerous situations. I am happy with the progress. I think the team is getting better, there's a lot more cohesive offensive force into the attack. We're getting to get to know each other a little better."

Buffalo next travels to St. Louis for the second of four consecutive road games to take on the nationally ranked Billikens on Saturday night. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m.

In the fourth game of their six game road trip, the women dropped their second one-goal decision to a Mid-American Conference opponent, Ohio. Despite a late rally, the Bulls fell to Ohio 2-1 on Sunday afternoon. The Bulls played without two key starters, defenseman Courtney MacVie, who was injured against Akron on Friday, and forward Heidi Griffiths, who according Tassy, did not travel due to a concussion.

"I thought we played hard," Tassy said. "We played well. We made some changes due to the fact that we have two starters that are down... So we had to reshuffle a little bit just to be competitive."

The Bulls (3-6-1, 0-2-0 MAC) got into a hole early as Ohio's Lindsey Price beat junior goalkeeper Amy Coron one-on-one in the 30th minute. The Bobcats (2-5-2, 2-0 MAC) out-shot the Bulls 21-13 in the game and in the 57th minute, another shot by Erika Schmitt put the Bobcats up by a pair on a play, with which Tassy did not agree.

"The second goal was totally offside," Tassy said "(Schmitt) was left alone in the box and when the ball came she lifted it over (Coron)'s head. I complained about it to the referee, I even asked him to check with his lineman and that didn't happen."

The Bulls were able to cut the lead back down to one as senior Ashley Turner's second goal of the season found the back of the net in the 67th minute to make it a 2-1 game. Buffalo kept the momentum going and had a prime opportunity to tie late in the game.

According to Tassy, junior forward Brooke McCalla took the ball with five minutes left and lifted it over Ohio goalkeeper but the ball fell and hit the post. Ohio then maintained possession and came away with the victory.

"As we win some matches, we'll get a chance to finish in the top four, even win the conference and that's what we're looking for," Tassy said. "It seems like the challenges are becoming greater and greater and greater because of injuries to our starters.... it makes each weekend a must (win) weekend."

The next stop on the Bulls express is to Kalamazoo, MI for a match against Western Michigan (2-6-1, 0-2 MAC) on Friday at 4 p.m. where they look to improve on their 1-3 road trip so far.