TENNERTON – Following a rough patch of the season that saw the Buckhannon-Upshur soccer Bucs go scoreless in five straight games, the offense finally righted the ship after having a week off against the Philip Barbour Colts in a Big 10 Conference outing Thursday night at the high school.
The Bucs tallied three goals in a 3-1 win over the Colts as it was “Senior Night” for the team.
The contest ended a seven-game winless streak for the Bucs (0-5-2).
“First and foremost, I can’t say enough about the senior class we honored tonight,” stated Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Mike Donato. “It’s a quality group of young men that have done everything that has been asked of them over the years, and for that I am forever grateful. We had some time off as far as games go and we had a great week of training, and it paid off tonight. The biggest things we looked to improve on the past few days were some of the things we did best. We put a lot of emphasis on first touch and decision making, not to mention finishing on goal scoring opportunities. Even though there’s a lot of positive to take from tonight, we know there are several areas we’ve got to clean up and improve going forward.”
Jimmie Green staked the Bucs to a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute of the game when he cleaned up a loose ball in front of the net and put it home.
The game remained 1-0 at the break.
Philip Barbour’s Connley Sparks tied the game by sending home a penalty kick in the 43rd minute.
Riel Figueroa returned the lead back to the Bucs in the 58th minute when he played a through ball from Coby Smith and scored with a shot to the far post.
Figueroa put the game away for the Bucs with his second goal of the game in the 65th minute, taking a pass from Owen Cutright and nailing it to the back of the net.
The Bucs owned a 9-7 advantage in shots-on-goal and a 7-1 margin in corner kicks.
Buckhannon-Upshur was called for just three fouls while Philip Barbour was charged with 10 fouls and one yellow card.
B-U keeper Slaton Kowalkoski made six saves while Philip Barbour keeper Caden Foy stopped six shots.
The loss dropped the Colts to 4-5-2 overall and 1-5-2 in the conference.
The Bucs improved to 5-8-2 on the year and 4-3-1 in the Big 10.
Buckhannon-Upshur will be back in action Saturday traveling to Huntington for a non-conference game at noon.
The boxscore:
Philip Barbour 0 1 – 1
Buckhannon-Upshur 1 2 – 3
(Scoring)
Buckhannon-Upshur – Jimmie Green (unassisted), 7th minute.
Philip Barbour – Connley Sparks (penalty kick), 43rd minute.
Buckhannon-Upshur – Riel Figueroa (Coby Smith assist), 58th minute.
Buckhannon-Upshur – Figueroa (Owen Cutright assist), 65th minute.
Shots-on-goal – Philip Barbour: 7; Buckhannon-Upshur: 9.
Corner kicks – Philip Barbour: 1; Buckhannon-Upshur: 7.
Fouls – Philip Barbour: 10; Buckhannon-Upshur: 3.
Saves – Philip Barbour: Caden Foy 6; Buckhannon-Upshur: Slaton Kowalkoski 6.
