It's never the norm for a team to score the only goal of a game and still come away with a loss. But that's what happened on Tuesday night at UB Stadium as the Bulls opened their Mid-American Conference schedule against Hartwick.
Hartwick (1-7-1, 0-1 MAC) scored the only goal of the game, but the Bulls (4-4, 1-0 Mid-American Conference) came away with their first conference win in a 1-0 victory thanks to the own goal.
In the 28th minute, Hartwick sophomore midfielder Simon Greatwich tried to clear a corner kick that sailed into the box off the foot of junior defender Tom Beckvermit, but ended up heading it into his own goal.
"I think the pressure made the backs a little indecisive," said Buffalo head coach John Astudillo. "He didn't know whether to hit it out or to hit it back to his keeper. It's the reason why you challenge every ball, no matter what."
Despite it being the only goal of the night, Buffalo's offense compiled 15 shots in the game, in addition to recording five corner kicks due to continued pressure on the Hartwick defenders.
Astudillo was happy with the play of the offense, but knows they should've scored more goals as a result.
"We had some good opportunities in the first half and we never really capitalized off them," Astudillo said. "The score should have been a lot higher than 1-0 at the half, we just missed a lot of opportunities, which we obviously need to work on."
At the start of the second half, physicality began to take over the tempo of the game as Hartwick's relentless forced Buffalo into 13 total fouls.
"It was an all around very physical game…we had about three guys with bloody noses," Astudillo said. "The most important thing is that we came out with a positive result."
The brightest spot of the night came at the backend of the Bulls lineup.
In registering his fifth career shutout, junior goalkeeper Nick Fetterman made a few great saves to keep the Bulls' one goal advantage. Fetterman finished with five saves in his first win of the season.
"I thought our goalie, Nick Fetterman, played a super game. He made a couple saves in the first half that kept us in the game," Astudillo said.
After defeating Canisius (1-5-1) and St. Bonaventure (3-4), the Bulls will now look to sweep the Big Four when they visit Niagara (1-4-1) on Friday. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
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