Box Score

EASTON, Pa. -- Lafayette entered tonight's game against Bucknell with a 0.45 goals-against average that ranked fifth in all of Division I. After the team's sixth shutout in 11 contests, that figure will now go down even further.

Eric West notched his first goal of the fall in the fourth minute, and Brad Seeber made five saves, all in the second half, to help the Leopards secure a 1-0 victory over last year's Patriot League champions on Wednesday night.

The win keeps Lafayette (5-2-4, 2-0-1) unbeaten in conference play, while Bucknell (3-4-4, 0-1-2) is still searching for its first league victory.

"I thought we played great in the first half," head coach Dennis Bohn said. "Whenever you're up 1-0, you're going to have to defend in the last 15-20 minutes because the other team is going to press. To our guys' credit, they held down the back."

West's marker came on the first scoring attempt of the contest. A Bison defender attempted to clear the ball, but he sent it straight to the senior forward's foot at the top of the box, and West deposited a hard shot into the top right corner 3:51 into the first half.

"Getting the goal early was huge," Bohn remarked. "We had talked about some guys stepping up who maybe haven't scored, and that was certainly the case with Eric. You could tell just by the way he was in the locker room and warmups that he was ready to go. He stepped up and made a great finish."

"It's a big joke on our team that I always blast it over when I'm wide open in the box," West added. "So all I was thinking was just stay over the ball, hit the far post and make a play."

The Maroon and White had several chances to add to its lead in the opening 45 minutes, outshooting the visitors by a 9-2 margin. West nearly added a second strike in the 20th minute, but his low effort towards the left corner was stopped by a diving Mike Lansing in goal.

Later on in the 33rd minute, Greg Biggiani maneuvered around several Bucknell defenders to get a clear shot at the net, but his attempt was sent just high of the bar. Josh Kruczek forced another diving save from Lansing just over three minutes from halftime.

The Bison increased their pressure in the second half, firing 10 of the frame's 14 shot attempts. Seeber made his first save 2:42 into the half, pushing away a header attempt from Connor Willings, and he made another diving stop on Willings nine minutes later.

Marks nearly doubled Lafayette's advantage on the home team's first shot of the frame at 67:49, but a leaping save from Lansing prevented the ball from reaching the top right corner.

Bucknell came closest to knotting up the score in the 78th minute, as a header from Sebastiaan Blickman rattled off the crossbar. Seeber made one final stop 3:20 before the final whistle to seal the clean sheet.

With West's early goal, nine different Leopards have now combined to score the team's 10 markers in 2015, and Lafayette has also now allowed only five goals in 11 games this season.

"It's not just the back four and the goalie," Bohn said. "They'll get a lot of credit, and they deserve it, but it's not just them. When you have 11 guys committed to every play and every transition defensively, you're going to get shutouts."

The Leopards hit the road for the next contest, a 1 p.m. tilt at American this Saturday.