On a blustery and cold Sunday afternoon at RAC Field, the woes for the University at Buffalo men's soccer team continued as they were shut out by Northern Illinois, 3-0.
Coming off a 1-0 loss to Cleveland State on Friday, the Bulls could not find any cohesiveness on offense while the Huskies feasted on the Bulls' weak defense. The windy weather did not help the Bulls' offense either.
"I think the wind disturbed our shooting a little, but mostly our ability to pass the ball," said Bulls' head coach John Astudillo. "We were not able to pass three solid passes in a row without them being disturbed. I think it's really difficult to defeat a team like Northern (Illinois) if we are unable to do so."
The Huskies got on the board in the 16th minute of play thanks to the sure foot of senior Bernhard Hagevik.
In response to the Huskies' relentless offense, the Bulls had to play a tight defense, but were unable to do so. They gave up 11 shots with goalkeeper Daniel Bell registering three saves on the afternoon.
Curt Zastrow found the net for NIU's second goal of the half only four minutes after the Huskies' first goal. This gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead in the first half of competition. Although the weather was cold, the Huskies continued to warm things up in the second half when Steve Algozino put a beautiful header into the back of the net from the receiving end of a pass from Kevin Woerner.
Buffalo's only sign of offense came from freshman Shyle Braithwaite, who had two shots on net. Both shots curved just beyond the upper-right part of the net and harmlessly out of bounds. Coach Astudillo believes the Bulls' lack of offensive presence can be credited to the little time that the players have had to rest and to the inclement conditions that weren't conducive to the Bulls' style of play.
"Shyle had a couple of chances, but again, the weather and our fatigue didn't help matters," said Astudillo. "Our practice went well this week; it just came down to not being able to adjust to the elements. We looked like a team who had just played on Friday, it was obvious that we were tired out on the field."
With the victory, The Huskies will remain on top of the Mid-American Conference standing at 11-4 on the year, which clinches no worse than a second place finish for the season overall. Buffalo drops to 7-5-1, and a 1-3 record in MAC play. Buffalo will try and re-group next Sunday when they travel to Huntington to face the Marshall Thundering Herd. The Herd is 6-2-2 on the season and still alive for the MAC East championship.
Coach Astudillo is aware that UB is in serious need of a character-defining weekend, and will push his players hard this week in efforts to come out with a road victory.
"Marshall is another great team we will face," said Astudillo. "We need to come up with a remarkable performance on Sunday. We have no choice other than to do so."
The Bulls were shut out by Marshall last season at home, by a score of 1-0. The only goal of that game came from Michael McDonald on an unassisted shot through traffic in the 20th minute to give the Herd the victory.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
