BUFFALO — After a strong start to the season during the non-conference portion of their schedule, the University at Buffalo men’s soccer team (8-2-1, 0-0-0 MAC) will open up Mid-American Conference play on Friday night on the road at #23 Akron. The Bulls and Zips will meet in a rematch of the 2015 MAC Championship match at 7:30 pm on Friday at First Energy Stadium – Cub Cadet Field.
The Bulls are coming off of a 0-0 road draw at Duquesne on Saturday night. Buffalo had another strong match defensively as junior goalkeeper Joseph Kuta earned his seventh clean sheet of the season in his 11th match. Kuta was asked to save just five shots while the Bulls generated two good scoring chances of their own, failing to score for the second straight match. The Bulls enter non-conference action with eight wins, tying last season’s total and tying for the most in a season since winning 12 matches in 2008.
The Buffalo offense is being paced by the dangerous Russell Cicerone who continues to lead the nation in scoring with 11 goals and points with 29. The senior currently ranks third in the NCAA in assists with seven while also ranking 10th in game-winning goals with three on the year. The Bloomfield Hills, MI native currently sits just two points shy of 100 for his career and is second in the nation among active players for points (98) and goals (39) in a career. If he can notch two more points this season, Cicerone will become just the second UB player and third player in MAC history to record at least 100 points in a career.
Senior captain Braden Scales has had a nice start to his final season in the blue and white as he has notched five goals and an assist for 11 points while freshman Rikard Lindqvist has three goals and five assists for 11 points. Senior forward Steven Stryker has provided a nice spark off the UB bench as he
The Buffalo back line of Austin Place, Alec Fisher, Fox Slotemaker and David Enstrom have had a strong season so far as they have helped UB preserve seven clean sheets through 11 matches. The Bulls are allowing just 12 shots against/game while allowing just eight goals on the season.
Akron enters Friday’s MAC opener ranked #23 in the nation as they own a 5-3-1 overall record. The Zips are coming off of a 0-0 draw at home against VCU on Tuesday after falling on the road to SMU on Monday, September 19 by the score of 4-3 in overtime. The Zips are led offensively by senior Adam Najem who has netted four goals and one assist for nine points on 22 shots while freshman Skye Harter has netted a pair of goals and assist on just seven shots. In goal, sophomore Ben Lundt has started all nine matches and owns a 1.29 goals-against average to go along with 29 saves and five shutouts.
The two squads met last year on two occasions, the latter being in the MAC Championship match, with the Zips collecting a 2-1 victory and a 1-0 victory over the Bulls in tightly contested matches. In the regular season meeting, reigning MAC Player of the Year Russell Cicerone scored just over two minutes into the match before the Zips tied the game with a minute to play in the opening half. Akron would then go on to score the game-winner in the 84th minute of play on a penalty kick.
In the MAC Championship match in front of 1,335 fans, the two sides put on a hard-fought battle that eventually ended with the Zips collecting a 1-0 win. The Zips netted the eventual game-winner with 30 seconds remaining in the opening half. The Bulls pushed for the tying goal in the second half but couldn’t break through as their last chance came in the 89th minute on a free kick from Cicerone from the edge of the box that was blocked away by the Zips wall. Both goalkeepers came up big in the match as Joseph Kuta finished with 10 saves and Jake Fenlason had six in goal for the Zips.
After the Akron match on Friday, the Bulls will return to the road on Saturday, Oct. 15 as they travel to nationally-ranked West Virginia. The match against the Mountaineers will start at 7 p.m. at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
from UBBulls.com via IFTTT