#25 Fort Hays State 10-2-14: (Live Stats / Live Video / Tickets) Buffalo Soccer Game Notes CANYON, Texas – The West Texas A&M men's soccer team will welcome No. 25 Fort Hays State to The Pitch on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 2, for its lone match of the week. It will be the Buffs' fifth game in their current six-game homestand while kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. The Buffs will be eying their third-straight win along with their third-straight victory over the Tigers.
LIVE COVERAGE: Live stats and a free video webstream will be provided for Thursday's match courtesy of West Texas A&M Athletic Media Relations. Links can be found on www.GoBuffsGo.com via the men's soccer schedule page.
HOME STAND: The Buffs are currently in the middle of a six-game homestand as they continue the stretch on Thursday evening with their match against FHSU. Two weeks ago, the Buffs split the first two matches, defeating Dallas Baptist (1-0) and losing to St. Edward's (4-0). Last week, WT grabbed two wins against more Heartland Conference opponents, defeating Oklahoma Christian (2-1) and Newman (2-0). It will close out the stretch with a match against Eastern New Mexico on Wednesday, Oct. 8. After that stretch, WT will play six of its final seven regular season matches of the 2014 season on the road.
BALANCED BUFFS: The Buffs have outscored their opponents 17-10 so far this season while nine different players have contributed to that goal total. Senior
Vitor Cardoso leads the way with goals, equaling his total from last season already. Sophomore
Chris Johnson has added three goals himself while seniors
Christopher Hutton and
Michael Williams and freshman
Axel Insulander have each tallied two. Also recording goals for WT are redshirt junior
Tre Norton, sophomores
Christian Suthers and
Gabe Williams and freshman
Alex Cervantes.
CAREER 700th: Head coach
Butch Lauffer returned this fall for his 24th season at the helm of the Buffs. The Washington, D.C., native, holds a 279-122-31 all-time record in his tenure as the men's coach (1991-present). Including his 14 years as the head women's coach (1996-2009), Lauffer is 468-189-48 with the Buffs and Lady Buffs. On Sept. 12, 2014 at CSU-Pueblo, Lauffer coached his 700th career game for WT on the pitch (men and women combined), a 5-3 victory over the ThunderWolves.
FORT HAYS STATE AT A GLANCE: The Tigers made a jump back into the national rankings this week at No. 25 and will head into Canyon on Thursday owning a 4-3-1 overall record while they are currently 2-2 in Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) play. They opened up the season in its home tournament, the Days Inn Soccer Classic, where they defeated CSU-Pueblo 2-1 and lost to Drury 2-0. The Tigers then departed to Rapid City, S.D. to compete in the GNAC/MIAA Shootout. There, FHSU played to a 1-1 draw with University of Mary and defeated South Dakota Mines 2-0. It opened up its MIAA schedule with back-to-back road losses to Northeastern State (2-1) and Southern Nazarene (2-0) before two shutout victories at home against Lindenwood (8-0) and Southwest Baptist (5-0).
FHSU has been led by Michael Cole offensively with a team-high four goals and 10 points. Diego Cabral and Austin Clifton have both recorded three goals apiece while 10 players have tallied goals. Kent Freund has seen the majority of time in goal for the Tigers as he has started six games and has seen action in all but one contest with nearly 600 minutes. He owns a .91 GAA and a .833 save percentage for a 4-2-1 record with three shutouts while tallying 30 saves and allowing six goals.
The Buffs are 4-1-1 all-time against the Tigers. WT won both meetings last season, a 2-1 victory in Hays on Oct. 29 and a 3-0 shutout decision at home on Nov. 3. After Thursday's matchup, both teams will meet later this season in Hays on Nov. 2.
OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN REVISITED: The Buffs rebounded with a 2-1 win over Oklahoma Christian on Thursday night in front of a home crowd at The Pitch. The first 88 minutes of the match were not as close as the final score would show as the Buffs controlled the match, outshooting the Eagles 21-6, but conceded a late goal in the 89th minute. Seniors
Vitor Cardoso and
Michael Williams contributed scores as WT improved to 5-2 with the win. OCU fell to 1-3-1 with the loss.
Cardoso broke through for the early 1-0 lead for the Buffs at the 31:18 mark. The Sao Paulo, Brazil, native, took a pass at the top of the eighteen and dribbled about five yards towards the right wing before taking an off-balanced shot, appearing to turn the ball wide left, which snuck between the reach of Helker and the left post. It would be Cardoso's third goal of the season and second in the previous three games.
WT set the tone early once again in the second half, generating an early corner at the 46:39 mark, taken by freshman
Harry Osborne. The Buffs could not put together a scoring chance on that attempt but would find the net again just two minutes later. Williams would take the ball inside the opponent's eighteen before dishing off to the close right wing to fellow senior
Christopher Hutton. Hutton then sent the ball immediately back for Williams sliding towards the goal line in the middle of the box to tap in the insurance goal.
The Buffs would slip defensively in the final five minutes of the match giving the visitors a few dangerous opportunities. The Eagles would convert one in the 89th minute but it would be too late as the Buffs hung on for the 2-1 victory. Troy Tippeconnic sent a cross in from the close right wing to Seth Brown who found the back of the net to pull OCU within one.
The Buffs improve to 6-0 all-time against the Eagles with the win tonight.
NEWMAN REVISITED: The WT blanked Newman University at home, 2-0, on Saturday afternoon at The Pitch in Canyon, Texas to earn its fourth shutout of the season. The Buffs were led by Cardoso who tallied his fourth goal of the season while also adding an assist on another score by Suthers to improve to 6-2 on the year. With the loss, the Jets fall to 6-2-1 on the season.
WT held the advantage in shots on Saturday over the visiting Jets, 11-7, while also holding a tight edge in shots-on-goal, 4-3. The Buffs were also awarded eight corner kicks to the Jets' one. They tallied both goals in the first half less than three minutes apart to secure the victory.
Sophomore
Patrick Satorie got the win in his sixth start and improves his record on the year to 4-2. He tallied three saves and recorded his third solo shutout of the season.
Suthers gave the Buffs the first-half advantage with his first goal of the season in the 37th minute. Cardoso would send in a cross from the far right wing allowing Suthers to chip the ball in the back of the
net right over Hamersky's head from 15 yards out.
Cardoso would find himself on the scoring end of the Buffs' next goal. He would grab a rebound in center of the box and send a first attempt towards the net which would be blocked. The second rebound would fall right at Cardoso's feet for the opportunity to beat Hamersky near the left post. It would be his fourth goal of the season.
Hamersky received the loss and fell to 3-1-1 on the year. He tallied two saves in Saturday's contest and allowed two goals.
WT remains undefeated against NU in the all-time series with a 3-0 record.
The Buffs improve to 3-2 against Heartland Conference opponents this season and 4-2 when playing at home at The Pitch. They are also 3-1 on their current four-game home stretch.
