Last weekend was an interesting one for the men’s soccer team as they went on a two-state road trip to continue their no-loss streak.

First up was a rematch against Northeastern State in Tahlequah, Okla. on Oct. 21; a team WTAMU had suffered a 2-1 loss to earlier in the season.  The first half ended with no tallies on the board but the Buffs registered seven shots to NSU’s two.

The Buffs would come out swinging in the second half with Chandler Elder taking advantage of a bobble by NSU’s goalie 25 minutes in. Elder’s first goal of the season was countered 10 minutes later by the Riverhawks when they helped the ball find the net. Continue reading →

After a rough start to the season, the Buffaloes continued their winning ways this weekend on the road.

On Friday, the Buffs took on St. Mary’s in San Antonio. The team didn’t wait long to get on the scoreboard as Colin Bjostad used Lukas Garcia’s corner kick to get the ball into the net 37 minutes into the first half. WTAMU didn’t back off after the first goal, as Rodrigo Morin scored with 2:17 left in the first half.

WT continued to power on in the second half. Conrad Grouldbourne scored 15 minutes into the half to up the score to 3-0. The Rattlers wouldn’t give the Buffs a shutout, scoring with 14 minutes left to play to take the score to 3-1. The Buffs had 16 shots in the game compared to St. Mary’s six.

On Sunday, the team was in Laredo to take on Texas A&M International University. The first half was uneventful with just 11 combined shots, sending the teams to the locker rooms tied at 0-0.

The second half saw Conrad Grouldbourne put the first number on the scoreboard 24 minutes into play off of Aidan Hamman’s corner kick. TAMIU wouldn’t go away that easily and scored three minutes after Grouldbourne’s goal, tying the game.

With no goals to break the tie during regulation, the game went into overtime. But even with WT doubling the Dustdevil’s shots 4 to 2, neither team could find the net and the game ended with a 1-1 tie.

“I feel a lot better about the season after this weekend, we played well in both games and are continuing to improve,” forward Wayne Bruton said. “Our record is getting better also, which is giving the team a huge boost.”

While the Buffs’ season record is 5-6-1, their record over the past six games is 4-1-1. They return to action Oct. 21 against Northeastern State in Tahlequa, Okla. at 7 p.m.

Colin Bjostad celebrates after scoring the first goal of the game. Photo By Melissa Bauer-Herzog.

The Buffs were on a mission this weekend for their pair of home games.  The team improved their record to three wins, but was still missing a confidence-building weekend sweep.

On Friday, University of Texas Permian-Basin scored first at the 43:33 mark in the first half. But a little over 14 minutes into the second half, Daniel Angloher tied the game off of a free kick. Only four minutes later, Conrad Gouldbourne scored the game-winning goal, assisted by Abel Olivas’ corner kick.  WT won 2-1 with the Buffs tallying up with 11 shots versus UTPB’s six. Continue reading →

The WTAMU men’s soccer team loaded onto the bus for their first away weekend on Sept. 29 and returned to Canyon with mixed results after their second game on Oct. 2.

“We want to win as many games as we can. We don’t want to drop our heads, we want to get better as a team and see how many games we can win,” Wayne Bruton said.

On Friday, the Buffs had their first shutout of the season, beating the St. Edwards Hilltoppers 3-0 in Austin. It was a tight first half with no goals scored until five seconds before intermission when Conrad Grouldbourne scored off a header from a free kick for the first goal of the night with Aidan Hamman assisting.

Lukas Garcia helped WT’s score 15 minutes into the second half when he took a shot off a deflection to add another tally on the board. Soon after Garcia’s goal, Rodrigo Morino earned his fourth goal of the season with Garcia assisting to take the score to 3-0.

After a break on Saturday, the Buffs returned to the field in San Antonio against No. 5-ranked Incarnate Word for a Lone Star Conference match. Lukas Garcia got the ball rolling 7:48 into the game when he scored to take the Buffs up 1-0 over UIW.

However, UIW shot back, tying the game 37:09 into the first half and 38 seconds later put themselves on top of the scoreboard with another goal. The Cardinals’ final goal came with less than a minute remaining in the game, securing their win.

“We played well. We played better than we have the last couple games, we just got unlucky a little bit this afternoon,” Garcia said.

With two wins in the last two weekends, the team is looking to continue the momentum through the rest of the season.

“Even if we can’t make the playoffs, we need to keep playing hard the whole time and end the season on a high note so we can build on it for next year,” Grouldbourne said.

The two weekend games took WT’s season record to 2-6 with a 0-3 LSC record. They return to The Pitch to play against Texas-Permian Basin on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m.