LORETTO, Pa. (Sept. 9, 2012) – Despite strong offensive pressure in the second half, the Saint Francis University men’s soccer team dropped its first contest of the season Sunday afternoon, 1-0 to visiting Bucknell at the Stokes Soccerplex.

“It was a tale of two halves today, they dominated the first half and we completely took over the second half but it was just the matter of they got one across the line and we didn’t,” head coach Michael Casper said. “It’s the unfortunate thing in soccer, with all of our possession and all the pressure we put on them in the second half, we just couldn’t find a way to get the goal.”

The lone goal of the match came just five minutes in off the foot of Bucknell (2-1-2)’s Josh Butzke, his first of the season. Butzke struck from the top of the 18-yard box and delivered his shot top shelf past a diving Daniel Valcicak. The Bison continued to hold possession in SFU (2-1-2)’s end for a good portion of the first half, dominating in shots 10-3.

As period two got underway, it was the Red Flash who took control and spent most of their time pressuring in Bucknell’s end. Saint Francis had a number of scoring chances in the second half as evidenced by the 12 shots taken, compared to three from the Bison.

Defenders James Price and Tamas Maffey-Stumpe registered perhaps the best scoring chances for SFU as the half drew closer to an end. Both backs, who tower over 6-0, connected on header chances in front of the net that sailed either just high atop the cross bar or were stopped and cleared out by a Bucknell defender.

In all the Flash forced Bison keeper Mike Lansing to make five stops on the day. On the other end of the pitch, Valcicak stopped four shots. The loss marks the end of Saint Francis’ unbeaten streak, which had run to 10 games.

“The guys didn’t give up, they fought hard,” Casper said. “We’ve got to be a little bit smarter in terms of the way we do things, and that falls on me as well, but as a group we just have to get a little bit better. We have to get better with our finishing, our pressure in their half and our final quality.”

Saint Francis embarks on nearly a month long road trip in which they will play five games. First up for SFU will be St. Bonaventure next Sunday Sept. 16 beginning at 1 p.m.

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