On an emotional day, the American University men’s soccer team (6-6-5) defeated the Bucknell University Bison (8-8-1) at Reeves Field on Oct. 3, marking the 10-year anniversary of the passing of soccer alum Doug Dugan.
American entered the game off of a 1-0 home defeat to William & Mary and a 1-1 draw versus Loyola Maryland, their last conference game two weeks prior. Bucknell entered the game off of a 5-0 defeat at Boston University and a 2-1 home victory vs. Saint Joseph’s University.
Eagles freshman midfielder Yuta Phoenix made his first ever start for the Eagles while freshman defender Rohan Chivukula started his second consecutive game. Chivukula has been key in the Eagles backline, often winning headers and clearing away opposition attacks, and Phoenix has been complementing the Eagles attack by dribbling at defenders to create scoring chances.
American started on the front foot, pressing the Bison backline and maintaining offensive possession early. Within the first four minutes of the game, Chivukula played a long ball in behind, looking for graduate student midfielder Sebastian Garces, but the ball was cleared for the Eagles’ first corner of the game.
The ensuing corner was chaos as Bucknell failed to clear their lines, but shot attempts from sophomore defender Finn O’Brien and Chivukula were both blocked as the Bison minimized the scoring chance.
Just a few minutes later, American continued to mount pressure on the Bison backline. After another corner, Chivukula managed to flick a header to the back post, which was won by junior midfielder Chris Sullivan, who played it back out to Phoenix. Phoenix then returned the favor to Sullivan on the left wing, who then combined with junior forward Colin O’Brien. Sullivan played in Colin, but his loose touch gave Bucknell an easy opportunity to clear the ball from danger.
The Bison found some offensive rhythm of their own when sophomore midfielder Nate Coughlin was played in behind the Eagles’ defense. It forced Eagles sophomore goalie Evan Tubbs into action with his first save of the game coming as he closed down the angle on Coughlin. After American cleared the initial corner, the Bison struck the crossbar. Bucknell forced Tubbs into making two more saves during the first half.
But it would be American who found the goal to break the deadlock. Once again it came from a corner where chaos ensued in the Bucknell area.
The ball was swung in by senior midfielder Reyes Parra when Bucknell sophomore goalie Thomas Yerbury failed to gather the ball, deflecting it off of American senior defender Ian Webb-Johnson. The ball fell to junior midfielder Moad Ezzahir, who buried the ball into the wide-open net with five minutes to go in the first half.
“I’m happy. We needed that as a team,” Ezzahir said. “It was a little bit of a scrappy goal. Ian gets his head on it, the keeper bobbles it and I’m just in a good spot to put in.”
Head coach Zach Samol added on Ezzahir’s performance with praise of his own.
“I think when he came on in the first half, there were these really good moments of him kind of breaking the pressure of Bucknell,” Samol said. “Moad will give you a little bit more pop in the attack, a little bit more push because he’ll try things.”
In the second half, American continued their offensive prowess as they searched for a second goal of the game. Thirteen minutes into the second half, the Eagles struck gold.
After a Bucknell turnover, junior midfielders Javi Gonzalez and Oliver Snowdon drove the ball down the pitch, finding Parra, who played it to freshman midfielder Henrick Boahen. Boahen’s pass found junior forward Patryk Rojek, whose quick touch found Finn O’Brien in behind. Finn O’Brien’s quick cross into the box found Parra on the breakaway, who slotted in the Eagles' second goal of the game.
Not even a minute later, American was back inside the Bucknell penalty area looking for a third, as Rojek cut in from the left side to create space for a shot, but his effort was blocked out of play.
With just over 30 minutes to go, Bucknell began to control possession, but the Eagles continued to find more scoring opportunities through their counter-attacking play.
Parra had a good chance on goal after he played the ball out wide to Phoenix. Phoenix played the cut-back pass to Parra in the box, but Parra was unable to guide his effort on goal, sending it wide of the post. Phoenix himself had a chance six minutes later when a poor goal kick from Yerbury went straight to him, but his attempt to catch Yerbury off his line missed the net entirely.
Despite the best efforts of Bucknell, Tubbs remained relatively untested in the last 30 minutes as did the backline of Webb-Johnson, Finn O’Brien, Chivukula and junior defender Rex-Emmanuel Cobbina. Tubbs, Webb-Johnson, O’Brien, Chivukula and Snowdon each played the full 90 minutes.
“I thought the first half was hard, and then I thought as the game wore on we would come into it more, and we've been better in the second halves as well,” Samol said. “I felt good about the second half. I thought we were great.”
The Eagles then lost 2-0 away at Lehigh on Oct. 9, before drawing with #15 West Virginia at home on Oct. 12.
This article was edited by Matthias Jaylen, Jack Stashower and Gabrielle McNamee. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Abigail Jose and Rena Jalon. Fact-checking by Luca Palma Poth.
