TENNERTON – The Buckhannon-Upshur soccer Buccaneers simply couldn’t get their offense clicking in a 2-0 home setback to the Philip Barbour Colts in Big 10 Conference action Thursday evening on Senior Night for the Bucs.
“We were sure that if we could get a goal early we could have maintained control and kept that lead, but we just couldn’t find the back of the net tonight,” said Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Mike Donato.
The two teams battled to a scoreless first half.
The Colts took advantage of two Buckhannon-Upshur fouls for their two goals in the second half.
Philip Barbour put their first goal on the board in the 58th minute when Trenton Whited scored on a header from the back post on a free kick.
Grant Dodisman cleaned up a rebound on penalty kick for Philip Barbour’s second goal in the 64th minute for their 2-0 lead.
“Outside of two fouls, the free kick and penalty kick that the Colts took advantage of, I felt we played a good game overall,” noted Donato. “We made some key stops in the midfield and did a good job of maintaining possession and getting the ball in our attacking third. Unfortunately we couldn’t overcome our own mistakes and get a goal on the board.”
The Bucs owned a 13-10 lead in shots-on-goal but the Colts had the edge in corner kicks, 6-3.
Buckhannon-Upshur keeper Dalton Auvil made eight saves while Philip Barbour keeper Cody Cooper made 13 stops.
“Dalton had a great game, making a save on a penalty kick and making some key saves in the run of play,” concluded Donato.
The loss left the Bucs with a 5-6-4 record.
They will return to the pitch Tuesday hosting Bridgeport at 7:30 p.m.
The boxscore:
Philip Barbour 0 2 – 2
Buckhannon-Upshur 0 0 – 0
Scoring
Philip Barbour – Trenton Whited (unassisted), 58th minute.
Philip Barbour – Grant Dodisman (unassisted), 64th minute.
Shots-on-goal – Philip Barbour 10; Buckhannon-Upshur 13.
Corner kicks – Philip Barbour 6; Buckhannon-Upshur 3.
Fouls – Philip Barbour 12; Buckhannon-Upshur 15.
Saves – Philip Barbour: Cody Cooper 13; Buckhannon-Upshur: Dalton Auvil 8.