The Buffalo State men’s soccer team lost two conference games on the road this weekend, falling to Posdam, 3-0, on Friday and Plattsburg, 3-1, on Saturday.
With the two losses the Bengals were eliminated from the playoffs after going 1-5 in conference play to this point.
“It’s disappointing because after a strong start we really had a lot of confidence going into our conference games and mental mistakes killed us all year” said head coach Rudy Pompert. “It’s frustrating because out of our six conference games I can honestly say we only played two games where the other team was just flat out better than us.”
Mental errors and miscues haunted the Bengals all season and didn’t leave them this past weekend, leading to goals for the other teams.
Friday against Potsdam the Bengals held possession of the ball the entire game but failed to capitalize on their scoring.
Vic Colasacco of Potsdam scored just 12 minutes into the game and added another four minutes later to put the game away early. The Bengals were outshot 16-7 including 7-4 in shots on net. Bengal goalie Ben Spilman recorded four saves in the defeat.
Saturday was a tale of two halves as the Bengals played a tough first half before being outplayed in the second to lose 3-1 to Plattsburgh.
The Cardinals started out the scoring early as they took the lead just nine minutes into the game on a goal by Pat Shaughnessy. The Bengals would respond as Kirk Love notched his team-leading sixth goal in the second but Shaughnessy answered the call recording his second goal of the game.
Plattsburgh tallied another insurance goal and with that eliminated Buffalo State from playoff contention.
Spilman came up with five saves as the Bengals were once again outshot 15-8.
Love said it was a tough loss for the Bengals.
“We played better today but it wasn’t enough,” he said. “I wish my goal could’ve went towards a W but it’s a loss so we have to move onto the next game.”
The Bengals will finish up the season with two home games and will look to end the season on a high note after Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Nazareth College on Friday and Saturday and improve their record to above the .500 mark after the team saw just three wins last season.
Pompert said there’s still much to play for in the team’s remaining games.
“There’s still many things to play for and build on for next season and most importantly our seniors.”
Aubrey Gibert can be reached by email at gibert.record@live.com.