CLARKSBURG – The Buckhannon-Upshur soccer Bucs couldn’t find the back of the net in a Big 10 Conference contest with the homestanding Robert C. Byrd Eagles in a 2-0 setback Thursday evening.

“I felt we had a lot of good back and forth throughout the game but just couldn’t find the one connecting pass or movement into space to create more opportunities,” stated Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Mike Donato. “It seemed that we couldn’t quite keep possession long enough and gave the ball away too much. Defensively overall we did well in positioning and winning back possession.”

Both of Robert C. Byrd’s goals occurred in the second half.

Brayden Thomason dribbled across the top of the penalty area and scored with a shot to the top corner in the 54^th minute, and 19 minutes later, Isaiah Gabbert took advantage of a poor deflection by a B-U defender in front of the net off of a corner kick and scored with a shot to the near post.

The Bucs trailed in shots-on-goal by a 9-2 margin and in corner kicks by a 3-0 margin.

Buckhannon-Upshur was guilty of seven fouls while Robert C. Byrd was called for six.

B-U keeper Dalton Auvil made seven saves while Robert C. Byrd keeper Wyatt Crislip turned away two shots.

The loss dropped the Bucs to 4-9-1 overall and 3-3-1 in the Big 10 Conference.

B-U is still looking for their first road win as they fell to 0-5 away from the high school. Their final five games are on the road.

They will play again next Thursday at Philip Barbour with the kickoff slated for 5 p.m.

“The best thing for us right now is the fact we won’t have another match for a week,” concluded Donato. ”The time to rest and get over injuries will be huge to help try for a strong finish to the regular season.”