Bulls Succumb to Blue Demons 5-1

Bulley nets first of the season

CHICAGO, IL – The University at Buffalo men’s soccer team traveled to DePaul University to close out the Marquette Invitational against the home Blue Demons. With the contest tied 1-1 through the break, the Blue Demons scored four unanswered goals in the final 16 minutes to capture a 5-1 victory. Senior forward Dan Bulley recorded the Bulls’ lone tally, his first of the season.

Dan Bulley

The Blue Demons went on the board first off their first shot of the game at the 13-minute mark. Steffen Vroom netted his third goal of the season with a right upper 90 shot off a pass from Antonio Aguilar to put the Blue Demons in the lead 1-0.

Down by one, Bulls’ defender Casey Derkacz (Hamburg, NY/Penn State) dropped a perfectly-placed corner kick into a crowd of blue and white jerseys. Bulley went aerial, heading the ball past the Blue Demons’ keeper to tie the contest, 1-1 at 37:30.

With 26 seconds remaining in the first half, Nick Fetterman came up with a save to keep the game tied up heading into the break.

Casey Derkacz

Through the first half and most of the second half, the Bulls played a well-balanced attack by protecting their goal and developing an offensive presence in the DePaul end. “In the first 74 minutes, we played a well-fought contest. We were focused and played a well-balanced game,” added head coach John Astudillo.

The final 16 minutes of the second half brought about an unexpected ending, as the Bulls believed they tied the game up until their goal was disallowed. The Blue Demons took an advantage of the Bulls’ disheveled attitude by scoring four unanswered goals off eight shots.

The Blue Demons broke the 1-1 tie at the 73-minute mark off an unassisted goal. The Blue Demons continued to pepper Fetterman with shots until Alex Mangan buried a centering pass from Vroom at 77:40 to give the Blue Demons a 3-1 lead. The Blue Demons’ next two goals came under a minute of one another, scoring at 82:39 and 83:33 to give them a 5-1 lead.

“Lack of concentration. Our team is a lot better than this. In the final 16 minutes, our defense collapsed. With Steffen Thoresen out of the lineup, we needed others to step up and there was a poor response in doing so,” said Astudillo.

The Blue Demons held the advantage in shots, 17-5 and shots on goal, 10-1.

Facing the Blue Demons’ offensive attack, Fetterman recorded five saves in 90 minutes of action.

For their strong performances at the Marquette Invitational, Fetterman and forward Michael Unwin (Basingstoke, England/North Iowa CC) were named to the All-Tournament Team.  Unwin recorded two goals in the opening contest of the Invitational versus host Marquette on Friday, September 11 while Fetterman kept the Golden Eagles off the scoreboard in the contest with a career-high six saves off 19 total shots.

The Bulls will return to action on Friday, September 18 when they take on Cleveland State in their home opener at 7:30pm at UB Stadium.