SHINNSTON – They say once you get that first goal, sometimes it can open the floodgates for more scores.
That was the case for the Buckhannon-Upshur soccer Bucs in their road encounter with the Lincoln Cougars in their Big 10 Conference opener Tuesday night.
The Bucs didn’t get on the scoreboard until the 18th minute, but after they did, they scored nine more unanswered goals for a dominating 10-0 victory.
For Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Mike Donato, finding the right line-up and getting that chemistry built up of his young team was a key in the victory.
“A big point of emphasis for us has been trying to find the right lineup and getting our young players the ability to start building some chemistry and tonight we started to do that,” stated Donato. “I think we’re starting to put some pieces together that’s going to be able to help us in the long term and teaching some guys how to play into our system. It was great to see us string together passes and work the ball from one side of the field to the other.”
The Bucs built a 4-0 lead in the first half with all four goals belonging to Christian Dowell. Dowell finished the game with five scores.
Coby Smith scored the first two goals of the second half for the Bucs, upping their lead to 6-0.
Riel Figueroa then scored three goals in a seven-minute span to treat the Bucs to a 9-0 advantage.
Dowell wrapped up the scoring in the 64th minute with an unassisted goal.
B-U limited Lincoln to just one shot-on-goal and one corner kick in the shutout win.
“Anytime you shut out any opponent you give credit to your keeper and defenders,” noted Donato. “They played high press and stayed involved in keeping possession and surrendering just one quality chance.”
The Bucs peppered the Lincoln net with 24 shots-on-goal and had seven corner kicks.
B-U keeper Slaton Kowalkoski made just one save on the only shot he saw while Lincoln goalie Ty Williams made 14 saves.
The Bucs were guilty of two fouls while Lincoln had a clean sheet on fouls.
Lincoln remained winless on the season at 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the Big 10 Conference.
B-U improved to 2-3 overall and 1-0 in the Big 10 Conference.
They will return to the pitch Thursday at Preston for an 8 p.m. conference tilt.
The boxscore:
Buckhannon-Upshur 4 6 – 10
Lincoln 0 0 – 0
Scoring
Buckhannon-Upshur – Christian Dowell (unassisted), 18th minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Dowell (unassisted), 24th minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Dowell (Deacan Thorne assist), 24th minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Dowell (Kyle McCann assist), 36th minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Coby Smith (unassisted), 41st minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Smith (Riel Figueroa assist), 45th minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Figueroa (unassisted), 55th minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Figueroa (Smith assist), 58th minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Figueroa (unassisted), 62nd minute
Buckhannon-Upshur – Dowell (unassisted), 64th minute
Shots-on-goal – Buckhannon-Upshur: 24; Lincoln: 1.
Corner kicks – Buckhannon-Upshur: 7; Lincoln: 1
Fouls – Buckhannon-Upshur: 2; Lincoln: 0
Saves – Buckhannon-Upshur: Slaton Kowalkoski 1; Lincoln: Ty Williams 14.
