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A weekend at home did Men's Soccer good. The Bulls shook their scoring drought, but it was only good enough for a wisp of a comeback against Lafayette and a tie against Niagara. Scott Doney has shrunk away from the central role he enjoyed to start the season, though he did pick up an assist against the Purple Eagles.
This weekend, UB will look to continue their bounce back with a pair of matches that should be winnable in Stony Brook (on the road) and Cornell (at home).
Stony Brook (2-4-1, 0-0 America East)
Thursday, 24 September; 7:00 PM
Stony Brook, NY
All-time series: Buffalo, 7-3-0
Last Meeting: Stony Brook, 4-0; 16 September 2012
2015 Common Opponents: UMass-Lowell
Streams: Not sure on free/pay, but America East has a video stream.
Live Stats: Also available through Stony Brook
Seawolves Player to Watch: Senior M Martin Giordano
Stony Brook is only scoring one goal per game, but Giordano is the most dangerous offensive threat, with three goals and a pair of assists, and the most frequent, seeing more time on the field than all but one other teammate.
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Stony Brook doesn't look scary, but they look stronger than Niagara, who gave the Bulls 90 minutes of fight after spotting them a two goal lead. Fact is UB isn't good enough to coast at any point. The Seawolves are also much stronger at home -- 2-1-1 against 0-3-0 on the road -- against a generally not-great, not-terrible schedule. It'd be really nice and not a huge surprise to see a win, but we haven't seen one of those in a bit.
Cornell (1-5-1, 0-0 Ivy)
Sunday, 27 September; 5:00 PM
UB Stadium
All-time series: Tied 4-4-0
Last Meeting: Cornell, 5-0; 27 September 2014
2015 Common Opponents: Lafayette (1-2)
Streams: UB's feed, hooray
Live Stats: Also through UB
Big Red Player to Watch: Freshman GK Rhys Moller
Moller's already at six starts as a true freshman. He's only got one shutout, but keeps Cornell in games with just a 1.10 GAA.
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Last year's match was the most lopsided in Cornell's multisport reign of terror over UB. The Big Red won by a 5-0 margin while only putting five shots on goal. I don't know if Waleed Cassis was hung out to dry or what, but it wasn't a good showing from anyone.
Cornell's record isn't impressive, but I think it's misleading. The Big Red have played in exclusively one-goal games except for a 2-0 loss against #12 Oregon State. As I said above, their goalie doesn't give up much. UB of course needs to score to win, and I think they'll need to score to tie, and they're going to need to defend a lot better than they did against Niagara.