TENNERTON – Tim Snyder and Christian Dowell each scored two goals as the Buckhannon-Upshur soccer Bucs had their best offensive game of the young season in a 6-0 blanking over the Preston Knights Thursday evening at the high school.
It was the second win in a row for the Bucs.
Snyder wasted little time in getting the Bucs on the scoreboard as he took advantage of Preston keeper Devon Shaffer coming out of the net and put a shot to the near post past him and in during the first minute of the contest.
Josh Gregory made it a 2-0 contest for B-U 10 minutes later when he sent home a shot outside the penalty area to the right side of the net for the score.
The Bucs took that 2-0 advantage into the half.
Dowell came up big in a 10-minute stretch with two goals.
His first came in the 53rd minute when he dribbled to the right and blasted a shot to the far post through the keeper’s hands and into the net and in the 63rd minute, he nailed a hard shot to the far post giving B-U a 4-0 lead.
Caleb Haney gave the Bucs a 5-0 lead in the 66th minute when he poked in a corner kick from Jared Brandish.
Snyder wrapped up the scoring in the 79th minute when he grabbed a loose rebound in front of the goal with a shot to the far post.
“This was a good bounce back performance for us tonight,” said Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Mike Donato. “Even though we won Tuesday we felt we still weren’t playing at our best. Again we had to work with lineup adjustments due to different circumstances but our guys stepped up big tonight. Preston is a scrappy hungry team that gave Elkins a battle the other day so we knew they’d want to build off that performance but the two early goals we scored were able to help use relax and settle in. We saw a lot smoother possession and good movement. Defensively we didn’t give up any silly chances and was able to keep the ball in our half of the field.”
The Bucs owned a 13-2 lead in shots-on-goal and a 13-0 advantage in corner kicks.
Buckhannon-Upshur was guilty of five fouls while Preston was called for six.
Dalton Auvil made two saves while Slaton Kowalkoski didn’t see a shot for the Bucs in the shutout win.
Shaffer made seven saves in goal for the Knights.
The win improved the Bucs to 2-3-1 on the season heading into Saturday’s road outing at Charleston Catholic.
The game will kickoff at noon.
The boxscore:
Preston 0 0 – 0
Buckhannon-Upshur 2 4 – 6
Scoring
Buckhannon-Upshur – Tim Snyder (unassisted), 1st minute.
Buckhannon-Upshur – Josh Gregory (unassisted), 11th minute.
Buckhannon-Upshur – Christian Dowell (unassisted), 53rd minute.
Buckhannon-Upshur – Dowell (unassisted) 63rd minute.
Buckhannon-Upshur – Caleb Haney (Jared Brandish assist), 66th minute.
Buckhannon-Upshur – Snyder (unassisted), 79th minute.
Shots-on-goal – Preston 2; Buckhannon-Upshur 13.
Corner kicks – Preston 0; Buckhannon-Upshur 13.
Fouls – Preston 6; Buckhannon-Upshur 5.
Saves – Preston: Devon Shaffer 7; Buckhannon-Upshur: Dalton Auvil 2; Slaton Kowalkoski 0.
