After a week and a half long tour in which the Bulls played five games, the men's soccer team did not seem fatigued at all. The Bulls (5-2-1) beat up on cross-town rival Canisius (1-3-1) by a score of 4-0 and extended its win streak to four games, improving its record to 3-0 this past week.
It wasn't until the second half that the floodgates opened up, as the Bulls scored all four of its goals after the halfway point. Senior midfielder Brian Knapp and senior defender Kevin Balkanloo each netted goals in the final forty-five minutes, while sophomore striker Jon Martin came off the bench to tally two goals for the Bulls later in the game. The Bulls shared the ball extremely well as assists came from junior striker Lee Catchpole, senior striker Andrae Clarke, junior midfielder Lucas Martorana and freshmen striker Matt Contino.
"We went after the midfield and midfield control," said Bulls head coach John Astudillo. "Once we played at the midfield fairly organized, we put numbers on the ball and scored some super goals."
With a halftime score of 0-0, the game was very tight and evenly played. A confident Canisius team recorded six shots and forced senior goalkeeper Daniel Bell to make an early save.
"We came out hard right from the start of the half," Martin said. "We took it to them. We didn't mess around. We didn't play with the ball. We just attacked."
Coming out of the locker room fired up, the Bulls' first goal came early in the second half when Knapp cracked a volley shot past Canisius goalkeeper Pat Owcarz. The build up started with a string of headers, with the final one from Catchpole who played it to Knapp for the goal. The goal gave the Bulls a 1-0 lead and was also Knapp's first goal this season.
Buffalo wasted no time getting on the scoreboard again. Only eight minutes later the Bulls saw themselves up 2-0. Freshmen midfielder Ville Wahlsten took a free kick from about 30 yards out. Clarke headed a bouncing ball towards the goal, but Owcarz made a diving stop. Balkanloo was there to put home the rebound to put the Bulls up by two.
Having only been in the game five minutes, Martin made his presence felt as he netted two goals, to secure the Bulls' road victory.
Martin's first goal came in the 71st minute off a clever back heal just inside the box. Martorana, who played the ball to Martin on the right side of the box, recorded the assist on the play.
The sophomore didn't stop there. Using only five more minutes of game clock, the Bulls and Martin struck again when Contino, who assisted on two goals, flicked the ball up on the left side of the box for Martin to rip home.
The two goals were Martin's first of his Buffalo career and marked the second straight game in which a Buffalo player had scored his first collegiate goal.
With Buffalo's offense playing so well, the Golden Griffins struggled to produce anything on their offensive end. Eight different players registered shots for the Griffins, but it wasn't nearly enough as Bell was forced to make only two saves the entire match. Bell earned his third consecutive shutout of the year. Owcarz made his fourth-straight start of the season for the Griffs and made six saves in the contest.
The Bulls won the shot battle 16-9 for the game with 11 of those coming in the second frame. The Bulls also held a 5-1 edge in corner kicks with all of them coming in the final stanza.
"This is the result of some pretty hard work from a lot of people," Astudillo said. "It wasn't like this guy was brilliant or that guy was great. It was that everyone worked their tail off."
It was the 35th meeting between the Griffs and Bulls with Buffalo winning the last three matches. The Bulls thrashing of 4-0 was the most goals Canisius has given up at home since allowing four to Robert Morris last year.
"We want to keep building on this win and the wins we've been having," Martin said. "Go out every game hard like we did today and the results should go in our favor."
The Bulls will host Duquesne Friday under the lights at UB Stadium. Kick off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
