Late Goals Propel Soccer to Fifth Straight Victory
New Kensington, Pa. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Soccer Team (5-1, 3-0) continued their roll winning their fifth straight contest on Thursday beating Penn State New Kensington (3-3-1, 2-3-1) by the score of 2-0.
It was a competitive game throughout as both teams played great defense in the first half. Freshman goal keeper Colin Bucsok (Pittsburgh, Pa./Thomas Jefferson) shined in net making several saves including a leaping save to rob Penn State New Kensington in the upper left hand corner.
It was all knotted up at zero until the 71st minute when PSUGA senior Jake Theiret (Port Vue, Pa,/South Allegheny) scored his third goal of the season, assisted by Nick Andrews (Penn Hills, Pa./Serra Catholic), to put Greater Allegheny up 1-0. PSUGA would strike again just four minutes later as leading scorer Marin Marina scored his eighth goal of the season, assisted by a long punt from Colin Bucsok, to put PSUGA in a position to close out the contest.
With the win, PSUGA moves to 3-0 in conference play for the first time in program history. They are now just one win away from clinching their fourth straight Penn State University Athletic Conference playoff spot as they chase a PSUAC championship.
The Defense once again performed well in the contest and Head Coach Dale Odim was extremely please especially with the play of his goal keeper.
“It was a very physical contest,” said Odim. “Both keepers were excellent and made terrific saves. This was our best game of the season. The defense played very well again and we had several goal scoring opportunities off of combination plays.”
Colin Bucsok continues to shine in net as he is now 5-1 on the season. He picked up his third shut-out of the season and made 10 saves on the day, the most in the match. Bucsok had some big shoes to fill coming into the season as he was tasked with replacing PSUAC All-Conference goal keeper Prakash Weagley. However, the first year player has shined and is making a case for his own all PSUAC award.
The PSUGA soccer team will be back in action this Saturday when they play a home match against Penn State Hazleton at 2 p.m.