MOON TOWNSHIP– The Robert Morris men’s soccer team dropped their season opening match to in-state rival Bucknell 2-0 Thursday.

Head coach Jonathan Potter is entering his second season at the helm. He and his squad allowed both of the Bison’s two goals within 13 minutes of each other.

Freshman Drew Roskos scored his first collegiate goal in his debut in the 17th minute off his head off a free kick and junior Cade McGrath also scored his first career goal off a header as well.

“I think frustrating is a good word,” Potter said. “I don’t think we approached the game in the first half the right way. We trained really hard for two weeks and we should have came out with a better level of intensity to start the match. Credit to Bucknell. They gave us everything we could handle in that first half.”

The Colonials played frustrated throughout the afternoon, creating multiple chances with seven shots on goal and possessed the majority of the time following the goals.

“The guys really responded at halftime. I thought we were really connected and we brought a different level of intensity,” Potter said. “I thought we defended really well and looked very solid by created a lot of chances. We created enough chances to score multiple goals. But we just didn’t find that last final confident finish, but we feel we’re early in our process here and feel those things will come.”

Despite the opportunities, many of them were washed out due to offsides as the Colonials were caught offsides six times, adding to the frustration for Potter and his staff.

“Our timing is off,” Potter said. “We would have liked it to be better today. I know that area of our game will improve, but too many of our attacks stopped in an offside decision where the timing was off from the pass and the running behind. The team was just so eager to get back into the game that the runs just came in too early. The timing of runs and the final finish has to improve in the final third.”

With the Colonials only one game down, Coach Potter still has confidence in the squad.

“We love our group,” Potter said. “We did many things that we did very well in the second half. But we know that we have the humility to understand that we need to improve. So we play again in three days. So we’ve got to rest, recover and improve to really come back strong on Sunday.”

RMU will play their first road game against Mount St. Mary’s on Sunday, Aug 25 at 4 p.m.