TENNERTON – The Buckhannon-Upshur soccer Bucs came up short against a very good Woodrow Wilson squad in a 2-0 setback Tuesday night in non-conference action at the high school.

Despite the loss, Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Mike Donato was pleased with the effort his Bucs gave.

“I was beyond proud of how our guys responded to the challenge we had tonight,” stated Donato. “Woodrow Wilson is a quality team, and we were able to play step for step with them for the full 80 minutes.”

The Bucs appeared to score first midway in the first half when Riel Figueroa scored on a free kick.

There was confusion among the officiating crew as to whether it was a direct or indirect kick. The goal was not allowed and Figueroa had to redo the kick which the second kick was off target leaving the game at 0-0.

Woodrow Wilson broke the scoreless tie in the 28^th minute when Jackson Schroder put in a penalty kick.

That was the only goal of the first half.

Woodrow Wilson put the game away with a score in the 59^th minute when Ayden Stafford played a through ball from Vince Umberger and found the back of the net with a shot to the near post.

The Bucs trailed in shots-on-goal by a 20-4 margin and in corner kicks by a 5-1 margin.

Both teams were guilty of 11 fouls.

B-U keeper Slaton Kowalkoski had a busy night with 18 saves while Bryson Doss made four saves for Woodrow Wilson.

“We had some great defending and outstanding goalkeeper play from Slaton,” remarked Donato. “It took us a few minutes to adjust to their level of physicality and speed of play, but once we did, we were able to possess and create chances that unfortunately we couldn’t capitalize on.”

Woodrow Wilson improved to 6-1-2 overall while the Bucs fell to 4-5-1.

B-U will return to the pitch Thursday as they return to Big 10 Conference play on the road at Fairmont Senior.

The contest is slated to begin at 8 p.m.