Last week, Bucknell Men’s Soccer played their final two regular season Patriot League games. Their first was Friday, Nov. 1 at home versus Lafayette and the second was Tuesday, Nov. 5 at Loyola in Maryland. The Bison tied Lafayette 1-1 and Loyola 0-0.
Bucknell tied Boston University with points in first place as regular season Co-Patriot League Champions. However, due to their loss to Boston during the regular season, Bucknell is the number two seed heading into playoffs, giving the Bison an automatic bye into the semi-final round.
This has been a remarkable season for the Bison as last year they finished in last place, and this year turned it around to tie in first with 16 points.
Against Lafayette, Bucknell came out strong, dominating in corner kicks, shots and speed. Later in the first half, Lafayette stabilized and generated some chances of their own, scoring one with seven minutes remaining.
In the past six years, the Bison have not scored a goal against Lafayette. They’ve either tied 0-0 or lost 1-0.
In the second half, the Orange and Blue were hungry for an equalizing goal. Cade McGrath ’26 received a ball in the wide area to the right of the box and beat his defender one-on-one to send a slotted pass across the top of the net.
Jack Lucas ’27 received the cross from McGrath after making a hard diagonal run from his left wingback position, and smashed the ball into the back of the net. This connection between McGrath and Lucas tied the game 1-1.
Throughout the rest of the match, it was close but no other goals occurred. Bucknell outshot Lafayette 9-8 and finished 7-3 in corner kicks. Additionally, Freddie Lapworth ’26 tallied three saves while the Lafayette keeper had two.
Bucknell versus Loyola was a similar story, however, no goals were scored at all. Bucknell had two good scoring chances in the opening 20 minutes coming from Drew Roskos ’28 and Jack Roberto ’25. In the end, both teams were even at nine shots, and both goals tallied two saves.
This game marked Lapworth’s seventh clean sweep of the year.
Nov. 12 marks the beginning of the Bison’s playoff run. Being the higher seed, Bucknell will host their Patriot League Semifinals match at home at 6 p.m. The team they are playing is still to be determined.
