Colgate men’s soccer team suffered a disappointing end to what was a success­ful season, losing to Bucknell in the Patriot League semifinals 1-0.

The game started out well for Colgate, as the Raiders held the majority of possessions and felt out their opponent. This early con­trol never amounted to any real threat and soon it was the Bison who attacked, pep­pering the Colgate net with three danger­ous shots. Nothing found the back of the net; however, and the teams went into the half scoreless.

“We saw a lot of ball in the first half, but we weren’t really able to connect the final pass to put us through,” junior forward Matt Schuber said. “We did feel pretty good about ourselves, because we felt we had played well and were controlling the pace of the game.”

As the second half began, both the Raiders and their fans felt that Colgate was about to break through. But then, out of nowhere, Bucknell forward Josh Plump was the recipient of a great through ball and was able to slide the ball in, giving Bucknell a 1-0 advantage.

“It never feels good to get scored on, but the way this game was going we were confident that we would be able to get it back,” Schuber said.

That same feeling was evident in the stands. The Raiders mounted serious pres­sure, and even subbed in an extra forward to try to equalize the score.

“As the time ticked on it got tougher to score because Bucknell put so many num­bers behind the ball,” Schuber said. “Even still we were able to create a couple quality chances and it is too bad we could not put anything away.”

Cross after cross went into the Bucknell box, but each time the final header went wide or the ball was cleared by a Bison de­fender. It was only when the final whistle blew that people gave up on the Raiders tying it, after each chance had given fans hope for a comeback.

“Although we didn’t achieve one of our main goals in winning the Patriot League tournament, we do have a lot to take away from this season,” Schuber said. “It was an honor to be able to play aside all the seniors who I have grown so close to over the last three years. We have a lot of pieces return­ing for next year, but it will take a significant amount of work and effort in the offseason to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Colgate ended the 2009 campaign with an 8-6-5 record.