Box Score ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The men's soccer season is three games old, yet Bard is sending statisticians scrambling into the archives already.
On Saturday morning, the Raptors throttled Cobleskill, 5-0. It was the program's largest margin of victory since 2011 ... and it marked the first consecutive wins for the team since that same year.
See photo galleryBard has scored 10 goals in three games so far after scoring 11 goals in 19 games last fall.
It was a dominant performance in sweltering conditions. They outshot the Fighting Tigers, 21-4, and didn't allow a shot on goal in the second half. They dominated at midfield, due early on to the play of
Tamaki Chiba and
Gabriel Kilongo, and continued to spread the scoring around. Four different players scored on Saturday, and eight different players have scored over Bard's three games.
Sophomore
Austin Higgins got the ball rolling in the 18th minute. He chased down a pass from
Shaw McCabe on the right wing, worked back toward the box and ripped a low, lefty shot past Cobleskill keeper Steve Seelman (Verona, NY) right inside the near post.
Freshman
John Flynn followed in the 29th minute, running onto a great through ball from Chiba and beating Seelman to the far post on a breakaway. And just a few minutes before halftime, a great arcing pass from
Donovan Stewart created a near collision between Seelman and
Armaan Alkazi, but Alkazi got a foot on the ball a split second before Seelman arrived, and it was 3-0 at the break.
A couple of minutes into the second half, Higgins was left unmarked in the box and was found by
David Mamukelashvili to make it 4-0, and freshman
Nick Shenberger made it 5-0 in the 51st minute of a set piece from Kilongo.
Taylor Bond made three saves in the first half, and
Daniel Gagne didn't have to make any in the second half.
Up next for the Raptors is Southern Vermont College on Wednesday night at 7 in Annandale. The last time Bard won three in a row was in 2010.
