Following their 2-1 upset win last Friday against the Marshall Thundering Herd, the UB men's soccer team looks to continue their success and exact a little revenge on Sunday when they take on the Western Michigan Broncos (2-6-1, 0-2-0 MAC).
UB's defeat of Marshall marks their second straight victory over the Thundering Herd and with the win the team's record improves to 4-5-1 overall and 1-1-0 in conference play. Senior Mike Peplinski continues to lead the team in points and is tied with fellow senior Geoff Thompson with four goals. Goalkeeper Chris Vavrina earned his first win of the season against the Herd and boasts a 0.87 goals against average.
Beating Marshall has given the team an idea of where they stand going into the rest of their conference play.
"Knowing Marshall is a strong team and that we could not only compete with them, but beat them gave us a lot of confidence," said junior captain Dave Pidgeon.
The team's depth was proven against the Thundering Herd as well. Last week's game saw six newcomers starting, all of them playing most of the game.
These freshmen were able to make an incredible impact on the outcome of the game.
"It gave the younger players a lot of confidence. They were able to step in and provide the team with what we needed, and that gave the team confidence too because it showed we have a lot of depth," said Pidgeon.
Not only did the newcomers provide confidence for the team, they also added an extremely important component to any game: intensity.
"(The newcomers) kept the intensity at a very high level," Head Coach Jon Astudillo said. "Their pace never slowed down and the team was feeding off each other's performance."
The team, however, is not going to sit back and enjoy the win against Marshall. UB realizes that they have to put that in the past and look toward the next game. Western Michigan could pose a physical threat to the Bulls.
"Western Michigan is very aggressive on the ball," Astudillo said. "They're not like the teams we've played recently."
By constantly changing the pace of the game, UB hopes they will be able to posses the ball longer and disrupt Western Michigan's style of play.
"We have been working on slowing and then quickening the pace of the game, and also on playing both short balls and long balls," said Astudillo.
Last year, Buffalo tied Western Michigan in a game the men's team thought they should have won. A few questionable calls made late in the game, played at Western Michigan, kept the Bulls from the win.
"We feel we have something to prove because we felt robbed last year," said Pidgeon.
The Broncos were chosen two slots ahead of the Bulls in the preseason polls, but this means little to the players now that conference play has begun. Astudillo knows the polls are just "paper talk" and believes the team is proving the conference wrong.
The Bulls might have a sight advantage, as Western Michigan will be playing the final game of a three-game road trip that begins with two non-conference games and culminates with the Sunday game at UB's RAC field.
The Broncos, who return two players from last year's Second Team All-MAC - Mike Bravo and Scott Duhl, will be searching for their first conference win. In WMU's first conference game of the season they were defeated by Marshall 2-0. WMU then played the Akron Zips and lost 2-1.
A pivotal win against the last place team would be an integral part of Buffalo's conference confidence and success.
"We know the MAC Championship is within reach, which is precisely what we've set out to do," said Pidgeon.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
