BRADFORD, Pa. – Three different Barons found the back of the net as the Franciscan men's soccer team shut out Pitt.-Bradford on the road, 3-0, Saturday afternoon.
Freshman Liam Nagle (Manassas, VA/Seton) got the scoring going early as the Barons capitalized on a corner kick in the third minute. Nagle positioned himself well in front of the net as sophomore JP Bobak (Grand Island, NY/Canisius) sent the corner kick into the scrum and Nagle found a hole and scored for the 1-0 lead.
The Barons continued to put pressure on the Panther back line as they got three more shots off and they were awarded a pair of corner kicks over the next 24 minutes. Junior Ian Baldau (Las Vegas, NV/St. Michael's) made his first shot of the game count as he found the back of the net in the upper left corner from about 35 yards out thanks to an assist from junior Chip Dougherty(Wexford, PA/North Allegheny). Sophomore Brian Gaughan (Hopkinton, MA/Hopkinton) made a pair of saves in the half, including one in the 32nd minute to keep his sheet clean through the first 45 minutes of action.
The Barons tested the new Panther goalie about 13 minutes into the second and sophomore Sebastian Koehler's (Ashburn, VA/Seton Home Study) first shot was stopped by Sihle Sizani. About two minutes later, Koehler scored his fifth goal of the year as he collected the ball off of the keeper's feel and slide a shot past Sizani to give FUS a 3-0 lead with 29 minutes to play.
Gaughan made his final save with 13:48 left on the clock to preserve his shutout and Franciscan's last shot by freshman Chris St. George (Ashburn, VA/Bishop O'Connell) took the final shot of the game with 23 seconds left but was turned away and the final buzzer sounded as Franciscan won 3-0.
The two teams were even with nine goals each while Franciscan held an 8-1 advantage in corner kicks. Gaughan finished the day with four assists for his second AMCC shutout of the season.
Franciscan returns to action on Monday as they take on Penn St.-Behrend at Highmark Stadium in a makeup of their previously postponed game. The opening kickoff is set for 3:15 pm.
