Derek Puerta and the rest of the Terriers will try to do better than they did against Binghamton last season. Dave KauffmanOne of the many beauties of sports is that once a new season begins, you can let what happened the year before fuel a fire deep within and inspire your season. Or you can simply forget about it. Move on. Acknowledge the fact that the past is the past and charge fearlessly into the future.
Tomorrow, the Boston University men’s soccer team (5-1-4, 0-0-1 America East) will opt to do the latter as they take on Binghamton University (4-5-3, 2-0-0) on Nickerson Field at 7 p.m.
BU ended last season with two straight losses to the Bearcats-both in Vestal, N.Y. The first was a heartbreaking, 1-0 overtime loss Nov. 2 in the last game of the regular season. Three days later, the Terriers began their quest for an America East championship, only to be stopped once again by Binghamton. This time, the game ended in a 2-2 draw, but the Terriers were defeated, 4-3, in penalty kicks.
“No, we’re not going to be looking for revenge,” said BU coach Neil Roberts. “I think half of this year’s team is brand new anyway. Right now, we’re just worried about our season and what we’re doing.
“Under the circumstances I thought we played very well against them,” he continued. “Both games were at their place and one went into overtime, the other one was tied and they won in penalty kicks, so I think we’ll be ready [tomorrow].”
The Terriers have only 14 players from last year’s roster on the team now, and most of them didn’t see significant playing time in last season’s matches against the Bearcats. Throw in seven freshmen, and the teams barely resemble each other at all.
What this year’s group will remember is its past few outings at home. Thus far, the Terriers are a mediocre 1-1-2 under the bright lights of Nickerson. Luckily, the Bearcats haven’t fared well this year away from home, sporting a road record of 2-5-1.
Despite the Bearcats’ road woes, they enter tomorrow’s contest on a two-game winning streak and are undefeated in America East play.
“They probably have the edge in momentum,” Roberts said. “I mean they’ve won two games in league play. But it’s early so I don’t think anyone can really have an edge this early.”
Binghamton’s conference wins have come against the University of Maine (2-1) and the University of New Hampshire (1-0).
“They’re a solid team,” Roberts said. “They’ve got a left midfielder, [senior Bryan Arnault], that’s pretty quick. They’ve always been a solid team defensively and in the midfield. They’re also very good on restarts, so we need to minimize those.”
The Bearcats have been outscored by their opponents 15-11 on the year and 10-6 in the second half. That bodes extremely well for the Terriers, who have scored only two of their 12 goals this year in the first half.
The Bearcats are a team that can hurt you in many ways. Four of their players are tied for the team lead in goals with two, and eight Bearcats have recorded double digits in shots on goal-with junior forward Matt Narode leading the club with 28.
As far as backstops go, Binghamton runs a goaltender-by-committee this season. Redshirt freshman Jason Stenta and junior Ryan Bertoni have started eight and four games, respectively. Stenta boasts a goals-against average of 0.94, while Bertoni’s is a bit higher at 1.66.
BU, on the other hand, knows that Zach Riffett is almost always guaranteed to be between the pipes. Through ten games, the senior co-captain has allowed only six goals, good for a GAA of 0.54-tops in the conference.
“For us, we just need to create chances and finish offensively,” Roberts said. “Both teams have to limit their restarts in their end of the field and just be clean.”
