After recent successes, the men’s soccer team hit a speed bump as the team fell, 1-0, to nationally ranked Charlotte Friday night. The team quickly bounced back on Sunday to defeat George Washington, 5-0.
The Billkens (12-4 overall and 6-2 in the Atlantic 10) had two very different games. The Charlotte game was the first time all season that the Bills did not score a goal, while they produced a season-high of 5 goals in the GW game.
The Charlotte game was an intense game, the Bills came into the game at the top of the A-10 conference standings, while Charlotte was ranked second.
The Bills had an early opportunity to score, but Alex Sweetin missed the penalty kick off the post in the 6th minute. After that, Charlotte controlled the game, playing more aggressively and applying a lot of pressure on the Bills defense.
Charlotte broke through early in the second half when Donnie Smith collected a ball deflected by a SLU defender and shot the ball past the Bills goalkeeper for the only goal of the night.
The Bills had very few opportunities, but in the 82nd minute the Bills nearly scored a goal. Michael Robson was able to collect the rebound but hit the ball off the post.
The game became confrontational at the end as Sweetin received his second yellow card which knocked him out of the game after a hard tackle against a Charlotte player. The team began to argue and jostle, but order was quickly restored. The game concluded without further incident.
“It is obviously disappointing, I thought we played hard, but they were a step quicker,” Head Coach Mike McGinty said. “They put us under a lot of pressure, and we knew they were going to, but we need to manage things a little better.”
However, Sunday was a completely different story for the Bills.
The team rebounded from the performance against Charlotte with a 5-goal game against George Washington. Five different players scored for the Bills that day.
The scoring began in the 11th minute when Jon Roeckle received a pass from Marco Heskamp off a corner kick by David Graydon. In the 17th minute, the Bills got their second goal of the game. Nick Maglasang scored for the Bills off the assist from Robbie Kristo.
In the 33rd minute, Kristo got his team-leading eighth goal of the season after charging down the center of the field. The Bills were up 3-0 at halftime, but the team was not done scoring.
In the 82nd minute, Adnan Gabeljic came in and scored another insurance goal. In the 89th minute Jonathan Svigos scored his first career goal as a Billiken.
“I thought we played well. We came out strong and [were] able to get on the board quick, and we did not give up,” Roeckle said.
The Bills have their final, regular season game on Sunday, Nov. 4 against Butler. It is senior day for the Bills and will likely be the last game at Hermann Stadium for Robson, Joda Holloway, Svigos and Maglasang.
The Bills however are not done with their season as they will play in the Atlantic 10 tournament in Charlotte, N.C. The Bills currently have 18 points in the conference standings which puts them in third place.
Charlotte and Virginia Commonwealth University are tied at the top of the A-10 standings with 19 points each.
The Bills will be fighting for seeding during the Butler game. Butler is looking to get into the conference tournament with a victory against the Bills. The top eight teams in the A-10 get into the conference tournament which runs from Nov. 7-11.
The Bills will be in the tournament, but Sunday’s Butler game will give them an idea of their seeding and road through the A-10 tournament and even to a possible NCAA tournament berth.
