WESTON – The Buckhannon-Upshur soccer Bucs ended their five-game losing streak, but they were quite able to break into the win column either as they rallied for a 2-2 tie with the Lewis County Minutemen Tuesday evening in a Big 10 Conference clash.

The Bucs were down by a 2-1 score when Riel Figueroa took the ball into the corner and played it to the middle of the field where Timothy Snyder buried it into the back of the net with less than four minutes remaining.

“I thought we did a good job of responding to adversity in this game getting a goal late with four minutes left.,” noted Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Dalton Auvil. “I love the fight this team has; they play until the last minute.”

The Bucs went down 1-0 at the half when Zander Cralton played a through ball from Zane Richards and scored with five minutes left in the first.

Snyder played a ball over the middle to Figueroa who buried it to the back of the net in the first minute of the second half tying the game at 1-1, but just a minute later, Cralton put in his own rebound returning the lead back to the Minutemen at 2-1.

The contest stayed at 2-1 until Snyder’s game-tying goal in the 76^th minute.

Not only did the Bucs break their losing streak but put behind them their five-game scoreless streak.

“It was nice to see the boys get back in the scoring column,” said Auvil. “Going a few games without scoring is a little rough. I thought we did a good job of capitalizing on our opportunities.”

It also helped Auvil that his leading scorer and captain, Riel Figueroa and Christian Dowell, were back on the field together after both have been dealing with nagging injuries.

“It was good to have Riel for the full game today, his presence made such a difference, as well as having  our captain Christian back for the full game,” remarked Auvil. “Both of them made a huge impact as Riel had a goal and an assist and Christian makes the offense go. It makes everything a whole lot better for your team when you have two game changers back in your lineup, and I’m glad they are back.”

The Bucs trailed in shots-on-goal by a 12-9 margin but led in corner kicks by a 4-3 edge.

Buckhannon-Upshur was called for five fouls while Lewis County was guilty of 13.

B-U keeper Slaton Kowalkoski made 10 saves while Lewis County goalie Landyn Taylor turned seven shots away.

The tie left Lewis County with a 6-5-5 record overall and a 2-4-4 conference record.

The Bucs, who tied their first game of the year, are now 5-10-1 overall and have a 3-5-1 Big 10 mark.

Buckhannon-Upshur will be back on the pitch hosting Elkins Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

“I hope we continue to get guys back and healthy, so we can continue to prepare for playoffs coming up,” concluded Auvil. “We will continue to practice and prepare for our upcoming matchup against Elkins home on Thursday.”