Marshall University Athletics
Strong Second Half Pushes Herd Men's Soccer Past Bulls
10/24/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Strong Second Half Pushes Herd Men's Soccer Past Bulls
10/24/2004
- Box Score
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. - Tied 1-1 at the half, the Thundering Herd men's soccer team scored three goals in the second half to take a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Bulls in MU's Mid-American Conference finale Sunday at Sam Hood Field.
"We picked up right where we left off on Friday," Herd coach Bob Gray said. "Everyone played great, we started off a little slow, but our guys did not give up, this is a really big win."
Buffalo (7-7-1, 1-4-0 MAC) jumped on top of the Herd when Cheick Diarra scored at the 24 minute mark. Marshall (9-6-2, 3-2-1 MAC) rallied back to tie the game with a little over a minute left in the first half. Junior Nicholas Ademolu (Windsor, Ont.) maneuvered his way through the Buffalo defense to score the unassisted goal. It marked his first career goal with the Herd.
Five minutes into the second half, the Herd would take its first lead of the game when Karim Boukhemis (Huntington, WV) scored his team-leading sixth goal of the year on a pass from Kirk Gibson (Allen, TX). It was Gibson's fourth assist of the season to lead the team.
Just four minutes later, the Bulls were called for a handball in the box, giving the Herd a free kick. Firas Al-Samarraie (Malmoe, Sweden) took the kick and converted on it to give MU a 3-1 lead.
Senior Salvador Djeukeng (Yaounde, Cameroon) finished off the scoring when he took a pass from Al-Samarraie and put it in the net. Kirk Gibson started the play, feeding Al-Samarraie, who found an open Djeukeng to score the goal.
The Marshall offense shined for the second straight game, recording 24 shots, 11 on goal. On Friday at Wright State, the offense has 16 shots with seven on goal. Al-Samarraie and Ademolu led the Herd with five shots each.
Joe Nebel (Brentwood, TN) was once again solid in goal, making seven saves. He allowed one goal on a point blank chance by Buffalo. Daniel Bell made seven saves for the Bulls.
With the win, Marshall improved their record against Buffalo to 6-2, its best record against a current MAC opponent.
Marshall will finish up the season with a pair of home non-conference games next weekend starting on Friday night when Illinois Chicago comes to town for a 7 p.m. meeting. On Sunday, Radford will make the trek to Huntington for the final regular season game starting at 2 p.m..
Sunday will mark senior day as the seniors on the team will be honored for their efforts with the Herd.
Special events are being planned for this weekend. Log on to www.HerdZone.com later in the week for full details on the weekend games.
