Box Score Season Statistics LUBBOCK, Texas – The West Texas A&M men's soccer team capped off its regular season on Thursday afternoon with a tough 2-0 loss to the Chaps of Lubbock Christian on the road in Lubbock, Texas. With the loss, the Buffs finish the year with a 9-7-1 overall record. The Chaps now improve to 9-5-1 (6-2, Heartland) with one game remaining on their schedule.
Even with the loss, the Buffs hammered the Chaps on the stat sheet in everything but goals, outshooting the home team 25-9. The Buffs would place seven of those attempts on target to the Chaps' two, both of which found the net. Leading the way were sophomore
Christian Suthers and freshman
Brandon Bautista with five attempts each while sophomore
Chris Johnson and senior
Vitor Cardoso tallied four apiece.
Sophomore keeper
Patrick Satorie received the loss and falls to 7-7-1 on the season. Tim Saucedo grabbed the win and improves to 7-2-0 after making seven saves in the shutout win for LCU.
The Buffs started off the match quick offensively as they connected passes inside the box to send off three attempts in the opening six minutes. The first two would be narrowly blocked off the feet of Johnson and freshman
Alex Cervantes. The third would nearly find its way into the net as senior
Christopher Hutton had Saucedo beat, but his shot was stopped just in time by a sliding LCU defender.
At the 14:32 mark, the Buffs had another great opportunity to take the lead. Senior
Michael Williams placed a nearly perfect corner inside the middle of the box, giving Suthers a great look on the net but Saucedo leaped over for the tough save.
The Chaps would then take advantage of their first real scoring chance of the game in the 24
th minute. Callum Chapman-Page netted his first goal of the season with a header off a set piece from teammate Lennard Hansen to give the home team the 1-0 advantage.
WT would grab two more great looks on target before the end of the first half with attempts by Cervantes and junior
Johnny Oliver; however, each would be denied again by Saucedo.
Despite the one goal deficit at the half, the Buffs led in shots through the first 45 minutes, 8-3, and shots-on-goal, 4-1. Leading the way for the Buffs were Cervantes and Johnson with two attempts each. WT would also hold the edge in corner kicks 3-1.
Cervantes, Johnson and Suthers would each fire off quick shots in the opening few minutes of the second frame, much like that of the first. But it would be the Chaps who would find the net again, their second goal coming in the 64
th minute. Hansen, tallying his 10
th goal of the year was driven up the middle with an assist by Chase Williams.
The Buffs would close out the remaining time in the game with 12 more shots, including eight which were blocked and three placed on target. The closest for WT came early in the final minute of play as freshman
Evan Bozman drilled the crossbar at the 89:04 mark.
With the loss, the Buffs now fall to 1-1 in the all-time series with LCU. Their first meeting was last season, a 4-1 WT victory in Canyon on Sept. 16.
The Buffs now conclude their season with a 9-7-1 record and officially continue their streak of 22-straight non-losing season. WT's streak dates back to 1993 while it has only recorded a losing season just once in its history, that coming in 1992, its second season in program history, when it finished 7-11. In the 24 years of the program's existence, Lauffer's Buffs have recorded eight wins in all but two seasons.
