Men’s Soccer Hosts Loyola, American in Patriot League Action this Week – Bucknell University Athletics

American (2-3-2, 0-1-1 PL) at Bucknell (1-6-1, 0-2-0 PL)

When: Saturday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m.  

Where: Emmitt Field at Holmes Stadium, Lewisburg, Pa.

Streaming: ESPN+

Live Stats: BucknellBison.com

Bucknell at a Glance

• The Bison are looking to bounce back from two frustrating losses to start Patriot League play with a pair of home games on tap this week.
• Bucknell played very well at defending-champion Navy on Saturday, only to lose 1-0 on a lofted cross that snuck inside the back post in the 87th minute. That came on the heels of a 2-1 loss to Army in which the Bison held an 18-6 shot advantage and a 10-1 edge in corner kicks.
• The Bison have scored six goals this season, two from Charlie Holmes and one each from Waldemar Kattrup, Zane Domsohn, Aidan Kieffer, and Ben Sheffield. Kattrup scored his first goal in a Bucknell uniform last Tuesday at Seton Hall.
• Coach Dave Brandt has gone deep into his bench throughout the campaign. The Bison have averaged 20.8 players per game this season, with a high of 23 against George Mason, Saint Francis, and Seton Hall
• It is a young group, as well. Of the 19 players who saw action against Navy on Saturday, 15 were freshmen or sophomores and only one was a senior.
• Bucknell’s win came in the season-opener at Mount St. Mary’s, as Kieffer and Holmes found the back of the net in a 2-1 victory. The Bison also picked up a hard-fought 0-0 draw against George Mason on Sept. 8. 
• Bucknell went 3-12-2 in a rebuilding year in 2022 but played very well down the stretch. The Bison dropped a hard-fought 2-1 verdict at No. 4 Syracuse, the eventual national champion, then finished up with a 4-1 win over Holy Cross and draws with Colgate and Loyola, two of the Patriot League’s better sides.
• Bucknell was picked ninth in the Patriot League preseason poll. Defending champion Navy was chosen as the preseason favorite, just four points ahead of Boston University and five ahead of American.
• Dave Brandt is Bucknell’s 14th full-time head coach and just the third dating back to 1967. Brandt brought with him a remarkable career record of 354-86-40 in stints at Messiah, Navy, and Hope. His .779 winning percentage was 20th-best in NCAA men’s soccer history among coaches from all divisions with a minimum of 10 years. Brandt won six Division III national championships at Messiah and led Navy to the 2013 Patriot League title and an NCAA Tournament first-round win.   

Loyola at a Glance

• The Greyhounds have a win, a loss, and an NCAA-high six draws through their first eight games of the season. Their first win came this past Saturday at Colgate (2-0), and they also have a 1-1 draw with Navy in Patriot League play.
• Loyola’s only loss was a 2-0 home verdict against Delaware on Aug. 27. Since then, the Greyhounds are 1-0-5.
• Loyola’s non-league draws have come against quality opponents in North Carolina (1-1), Virginia Tech (1-1), NJIT (1-1), Fordham (1-1), and Penn (0-0). The Greyhounds scored the first goal in four of those five 1-1 ties.
• Loyola has scored seven goals and conceded seven through eight games. The team’s seven goals have come from seven different players.
• Rutgers transfer Dylan Van der Walt has played every minute in goal and has 30 saves with just the seven goals against. He is coming off back-to-back shutouts of Penn and Colgate, and he leads the Patriot League with an .811 save percentage while ranking second with a 0.90 goals-against average.
• Thomas Gray and Grayson Parks scored the goals in Saturday’s win at Colgate. Gray scored the game-winner in the 64th minute, and Parks ended it with a goal with 24 seconds remaining. Loyola conceded only four total shots in the game.
• Sean McEvoy earned Patriot League Midfielder of the Week honors on Monday. He assisted on Gray’s GWG at Colgate and played all but five minutes in the team’s two shutout wins.
• Loyola returned only two goal-scorers from last year’s squad in Gray and Danilo Seglio, who tallied once each. The Greyhounds finished 4-5-8 overall and 2-2-5 in the Patriot League in 2022.
• Head coach Steve Nichols is in his 10th season at Loyola and has a record of 63-42-34. 

The Bucknell-Loyola Series

• The Bison are 7-3-1 all-time against the Greyhounds. Bucknell won the first seven matchups but are 0-3-1 in the last four.
• The two teams last met in Baltimore on the final night of the 2022 regular season, and Bucknell played spoiler, eliminating Loyola from Patriot League Tournament inclusion after a 0-0 draw. Senior goalkeeper Bennett Schwartz was the story for the Bison. After starter Freddie Lapworth was sent off for a late challenge outside the box in the 40th minute, Schwartz came off the bench and made one big save after another to keep the game scoreless. He tallied seven saves in 50 minutes of action, and the 10-man Bison earned a draw despite being outshot 28-4.
• The last time the two teams met in Lewisburg, Loyola came away with a 1-0 win on a 35th-minute goal from substitute Jake Sweeney. The win clinched the No. 1 seed for the Patriot League Tournament for the Greyhounds.
• Bucknell’s last series win was a 1-0 verdict in Baltimore in 2018. Tyler Peterson, who had earlier cleared a ball off the line to save a goal, scored on a penalty kick in the 51st minute.
• The only current Bison with a point against Loyola is senior wingback Collin Murphy, who assisted on Sebastian Paz’s goal in a 2-1 loss during the COVID-modified spring 2021 season.
• The teams first met in 2005, with Bucknell winning 1-0 in the first round of the Loyola Classic thanks to an Andrew Loia goal in the 87th minute. The Bison defeated Richmond 1-0 in the tournament final two days later.   

American at a Glance

• The Eagles are 2-3-2 overall and 0-1-1 against the two Massachusetts sides to start Patriot League play. American drew 1-1 at Holy Cross in the conference opener, and then after posting a 3-1 non-league win at UMBC last Tuesday, the Eagles fell 2-1 at home to Boston University on Saturday.
• American hosts Navy on Wednesday before starting a three-game road trip at Bucknell on Saturday night.
• In Saturday’s game, which was moved to George Washington due to wet field conditions, Boston University’s Eitan Rosen scored just 23 seconds into the match and then added another one eight minutes later to get the Terriers off to a great start against the Eagles. Ethan Boyle scored in the 55th minute for AU to make it 2-1.
• American has outscored its opponents 13-11 on the season, with the red-hot Boyle leading the way with four goals, all coming in his last three games. Boyle also scored against Holy Cross – an 88th-minute equalizer — and had a brace against UMBC. His four goals are third-most in the Patriot League, two behind leader Hale Lombard of Lafayette.
• Robbie Matei and Zemi Rodriguez have two goals apiece, and five others have one goal. Both of Rodriguez’s goals came in a 4-1 win over Temple. Reyes Parra and Mustapha Sowe share the team lead with two assists.
• Matthew Tibbetts has started six of the team’s seven games in goal and has 22 saves with nine goals against.
• American has played in the last three Patriot League Tournament finals since the arrival of head coach Zach Samol. The Eagles won the spring 2021 championship but fell to Loyola in the fall 2021 final and to Navy last season.
• Matei was selected as the Patriot League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. The senior recorded four goals and two assists and was a Second Team All-PL selection a year ago. AU was picked third in the Patriot League Preseason Poll, behind Navy and Boston University. 

The Bucknell-American Series

• Bucknell is 8-17-3 in 28 all-time clashes with the Eagles. After a 2-0-2 stretch for the Bison from 2017 through the spring of 2021, American has won the last two meetings by 2-1 scorelines.
• In last season’s game in D.C., Cade McGrath scored his first collegiate goal for the Bison, but American equalized through Evan Schweikert just before halftime and won it on a Jack Green goal in the 74th minute.
• American won 2-1 in overtime in Lewisburg in 2021. Ethan Boyle netted the game-winner six minutes into OT, spoiling a 65th-minute equalizer from Bucknell’s Gabe Dahlin.
• Bucknell’s lone victory in the abbreviated spring 2021 season was a 2-1 verdict against the eventual league champs. Patrick O’Hara headed in Matt Thorsheim’s corner kick 11 minutes into the match to stake the Bison to a 1-0 lead. David Coly converted a penalty kick for American five minutes later, but in the 54th minute, Trevor Wiggins headed in Colin Eifert’s long throw for the winning goal.
• Bucknell has not had much luck on American’s home field, with a 1-12-1 record dating back to the first meeting in 1996. Bucknell’s lone win in D.C. was a 1-0 verdict in 2004, and the Bison also managed a 1-1 draw in their last trip there in 2018.
• The Bison are 6-7 at home against American.
• These two teams have met five times in the Patriot League Tournament, with Bucknell winning three, including back-to-back championship-game victories in 2009 and 2010. Bucknell defeated the Eagles 1-0 in the 2009 final in Lewisburg, and a year later the Bison prevailed 2-0 in a game played at Colgate. Brendan Burgdorf collected the only goal in the 2009 title match, and Ross Liberati scored both goals in the 2010 contest. Bucknell also won 3-1 at home in the quarterfinal round in 2013. 

Next Up

• Bucknell has another mid-week game next week at Binghamton on Tuesday, and then the Bison travel back to New York State the following Saturday to face Colgate.