By Joe Ruby

Writer

The men’s soccer team beat Navy (6-2-1) 2-0 in a league match Saturday night and dropped a 2-1 decision to UMBC (5-3-1) on Tuesday night. Luke Joyner ’12 and Josh Plump ’13 scored against the Midshipmen, and Tommy McCabe ’11 tallied against the Retrievers. Both games were at home.

The Bison had a number of close calls against Navy before Joyner scored his first goal of the year in the 26th minute. Travis Rand ’11 hit a cross into the box from near the half line. Joyner one-timed the ball into the net from close range. The Bison missed on a similar play minutes before.

The Bison struck again to put the game out of reach at the 71:26 mark. Brendan Klebanoff ’12 played the ball through to Plump, who outran a defender, took the ball deep into the box, and scored from a tight angle. Rand earned his second assist of the evening on the play.

Navy had difficulty generating offense, managing only a shot on goal in each half to seven on the game for the Bison. The Bison outshot the Midshipmen 14-7.

Against UMBC, McCabe scored his first goal of the year on a penalty kick that drew the Bison to within one. At the 83:29 mark, a UMBC defender was called for a handball in the zone. Ross Liberati ’11 attempted a penalty kick that was saved, but the UMBC goalkeeper was called for moving forward too early, and McCabe converted on the second chance.

UMBC began the scoring 22:15 into the contest, when Chris Williams hit a shot past Marc Hartmann ’12, who was in goal for the entirety of each of the Bison’s games. The Retrievers scored their second goal in the 55th minute when Pete Caringi cleaned up a loose ball in the box for his sixth tally of the year.

The Bison outshot UMBC 17-6, but only managed to put three of their shots on goal, compared to four for the Retrievers. The Bison held an advantage in corner kicks in both games.

The sole game this week for the Bison (4-6-0, 1-1-0 Patriot League) is against conference rival Holy Cross (3-6-1, 0-2-0) in Worcester, Mass. at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.