Soccer Looks to Rebound against Beaver

Soccer Looks to Rebound against Beaver
October 9, 2017

McKeesport, Pa. – The #11 Penn State Greater Allegheny Soccer Team (7-2, 5-1) is looking to rebound following their 7-0 loss to #9 PSU-Brandywine on Tuesday when they travel to face another tough Penn State University Athletic Conference opponent in Penn State Beaver (5-4-1, 3-0) at 4 p.m.

It was a tough contest last time out as PSUGA could not get anything going offensively against Brandywine. They only collected five shots with just one of those being on goal. PSU-Brandywine was able to possess the ball and take advantage of their opportunities putting PSUGA down early just 17 minutes into the ball game.

Jake Theiret (Port Vue, Pa./South Allegheny) led PSUGA offensively with three of the five shots on the day, the other two went to Belmo Nurkic (Pittsburgh, Pa,/Baldwin HS). Colin Bucsok (Pittsburgh, Pa./Thomas Jefferson) played the full 60 minutes in net picking up 13 saves on the day, however, he also allowed a season high seven goals in the loss. It was the first time all season that Buscok gave up more than two goals in a game.

With the loss, PSUGA falls to the number two spot in the PSUAC standings sitting one game behind PSU-Brandywine at 5-1 in conference and 7-2 overall. If PSUGA wins its last three matches of the season this week, they will guarantee themselves at least the number two seed in the PSUAC Playoffs. They could still capture the number one seed, however, PSU-Brandywine would need to lose two of their remaining three games this season.

PSUGA will start their journey to the number two seed against Penn State Beaver on Tuesday. It has been a while since PSU-Beaver took the field as they had to deal with a postponement over the weekend of their game against Penn State Mont Alto.

The last time Beaver played a game was on October 1st when they beat Penn State Worthington Scranton 2-1. Penn State Worthington Scranton got on the board first in that game to make it 1-0 in the 25th minute. However, Daniel Fermin would score in the 35th minute to tie things at one. It would stay that way until the final minute of play when John Valiga broke the tie with his first goal of the day coming with 00:13 showing on the game clock.

In the past, this series has not gone PSUGA’s way as they have a record of just 1-5 against Penn State Beaver going back to the 2013/14 season. In that time span they are 0-2 against PSU-Beaver in the playoffs and have lost their last five matchups. Last season, it was a tight contest with Beaver coming out on top 3-2.

PSUGA soccer starts their quest for the number two seed on Tuesday at 4 p.m. on the campus of Penn State Beaver.