UB scored twice as many goals on Friday as it had all season, and with that, the Bulls beat the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils 2-1 for their first win of the year in Buffalo's host tournament, the Fall Classic at RAC Field.
Making his first collegiate start ever, UB goalie Daniel Bell made sure that it was a memorable one. In his debut Bell made two unbelievable saves with less than four minutes left in the match.
Senior Mike Gellar scored the game winner for the Bulls at the 75:52-mark to break the 1-1 tie while Bell shut down a late offensive surge by the Blue Devils.
The final minute of the game was spent entirely in front of the Bulls' goal. Bell made two amazing saves on two great shots in the last four minutes. The defense also played well, by not giving the Blue Devils an easy shot at the goal. According to Buffalo head coach John Astudillo, it was, "heart pumping," to have the ball in his box towards the end of the match.
The teams went into the half tied at one, and it stayed that way for fourteen minutes, until Central Connecticut State (2-1) committed a foul deep in its own zone in front of their goal. This set up a wall kick by Dave Pidgeon who made a great pass to Gellar who had an easy scoring opportunity and converted for his first goal of the year.
It was not the best start for Buffalo (1-2), with Blue Devil Kasheim Outlaw putting up the first goal of the day at the 19:48 mark off assists by Peter Howe and Alex Harrison. This goal ended Bell's shut out streak at 87 minutes, 16 seconds.
Buffalo played a very aggressive first half on defense, swarming to the ball every opportunity they got while the Blue Devils played an aggressive half as well.
"The Central Connecticut boys are not forgiving," said Astudillo, but the Bulls played a tenacious defense. This led to a few first half rallies and a goal for freshman midfielder Erik Jaanimagi, which tied the score at one.
Jaanimagi was set up perfectly from a cross-field pass from Patrick Beckley who tallied his second assist of the young season.
After the Duquense Tournament, Astudillo said the team had to focus on defense and communication in order to improve. The defensive unit played extremely well, giving great protection to Daniel Bell in his first start ever.
Astudillo noted that he is going to have the team come in and practice nothing but set plays due to the fact that the team has yet had the chance to practice anything but set plays.
"We're bringing them in and we're going to do nothing but set plays," said Astudillo.
According to Astudillo, this was a very good team effort, and the Bulls are certainly playing well, and the team just needs to practice the set plays like the wall kicks, and corner kicks to polish off their all around game.
In other action of the Fall Classic, Wright State (1-1) drubbed the Golden Griffins of Canisius (1-2) 4-0.
Buffalo fell to Wright State in Sunday's finale of the UB Fall Classic by a score of 3-1. That game story, as well as stories on this weekend's women's soccer contests, will be featured in Wednesday's issue of The Spectrum.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
