By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN – Even though Buchanan was dealt a 4-0 loss to St. Joe in a non-league soccer game Tuesday evening, coach Brian Pruett saw improvement in the play of his team.
"We played a really good team tonight and we had our opportunities. If we can play as hard as we did tonight and put together some of the passes that we did tonight in a game against someone in our conference I think we will have some success," Pruett said.
St. Joseph scored their first goal of the night with the clock nearing the 13th minute off the foot of Ryan Robinson, the first of two for him in the game.
The Bears' second goal came in the 16th minute on a shot by George Kolettis.
St. Joe continued to keep the Buchanan defense busy as the Bears finished the night with 29 shots on goal. Buchanan goalie Tyler Knisely made 15 saves.
"They had a lot of shots but our defense had a big game, our goalie had a big game and they kept us in it," Pruett said.
Robinson picked up his second goal in the 70th minute. The Bears fourth and final goal came on a own goal by the Bucks off a corner kick by St. Joe.
Thursday the Bucks will host Brandywine in a Lakeland Conference match up. The two teams will be fighting for the number five seed of next week's conference tournament.
"If we take what we did tonight into Thursday game against Brandywine and into the conference tournament next week, we could have positive results," Pruett said.
St. Joe…4
Buchanan…0
Halftime Score
St. Joseph 2, Buchanan 0
First Half
SJ – Ryan Robinson 13th minute
SJ – George Kolettis 17th minute
Second Half
SJ – Ryan Robinson 71st minute
Buchanan own goal 80th minute
Shots on Goal
St. Joe 29
Buchanan 4
Saves
Buchanan 15
St. Joe 1