WESTON – A banged up Buckhannon-Upshur soccer team earned a 1-1 tie with the Lewis County Minutemen Thursday night at Lewis County High School in a Big 10 Conference contest.

“Injuries were a major factor tonight,” stated Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Mike Donato. “Owen (Cutright) still isn’t quite ready to go, Julien (Larcher) was out based on an injury from Tuesday’s game, and Noah (Radabaugh) went down within the first few minutes of tonight’s game, so we had some hurdles to overcome right from the start. At the start, the guys adjusted well and created some early pressure scoring within the first few minutes. We kept that intensity up throughout most of the game and created several quality scoring chances, but just couldn’t finish.”

The Bucs struck early in the second minute of the game when Zach Calef-Boring played a through ball from midfield by Caden Andrick and finished with a goal to the far post.

The Bucs took that 1-0 lead into the break with them.

The lone goal of the second half was a penalty kick by Lewis County’s Keller Bennett in the 53rd minute.

Neither team could muster that game-winning goal the rest of the way.

The Bucs were outshot by an 11-9 margin and trailed in corner kicks by a 3-2 margin.

B-U keeper Dalton Auvil made 10 saves while Lewis County keeper Landon Taylor made eight saves.

The Bucs were guilty of 12 fouls while the Minutemen were called for eight.

The tie left the Bucs with a 5-7-5 mark overall and a 5-4-1 record in the Big 10 Conference. They will return to the pitch Saturday when they host University in a non-conference game starting at 1 p.m.

“Hopefully we can get guys healthy and ready for University Saturday,” concluded Donato.