The No. 19/22 Boston University men’s soccer team takes on its second Atlantic 10 Conference foe of the season when it faces the University of Rhode Island on Saturday at 7 p.m. on the road.
The Terriers (5-2-1) look to build momentum heading into an Oct. 3 America East opener against Stony Brook University, after digging out of an offensive slump with a 2-0 victory over the College of the Holy Cross on Wednesday night.
BU’s offense was sent spiraling after a 1-0 loss to rival Boston College, who Rhode Island (3-4-0) beat 1-0 at home on Sept. 1. The loss tainted the hype of BU’s marquee win over then-No. 1/4 St. John’s University. But the backline, headed by sophomore Colin Henry and junior Matthew Shea, managed to keep Columbia University off the board until an assist by subbing defenseman senior Tom Strackhouse led to a Columbia own-goal to push the Terriers over the top, 1-0.
‘We weren’t moving quickly enough in the BC or Columbia games,’ BU coach Neil Roberts said. ‘We were able to get behind Holy Cross’s defense early.’
Early indeed, the Terriers scored both of their goals in the first 20 minutes of the game. But their offense slowed up into the second half and down the stretch.
‘We can’t slow down like that in the future,’ Roberts said. ‘When we do we don’t score goals.’
Freshman midfielder Ade Akinsanya attributed the Terriers’ scoring drought and subsequent second-half slow-down to tired legs.
‘We couldn’t get around the defense, but were better rested [against Holy Cross],’ he said.
Roberts took the appropriate precautions in the second half of Wednesday night’s game to ensure the same didn’t plague the Terriers’ this weekend. Sophomore midfielders Theo Terris, Temi Akansanya and Ryan Shea, and freshman forward Nick Prunier filled in off the bench to keep senior midfielder Samuel Appiah and junior forward Aaron O’Neal fresh.
O’Neal, who leads the Terriers with five goals and 12 points, helped get the offense back on track with a score against Holy Cross.
It’s likely the Terriers will get even healthier against the Rams, whose senior goalkeeper Chris Pennock has a 1.60 goals against average ‘- more than four times that of BU’s Hrafn Davidsson.
Davidsson, who ranks 16th in the country with a .36 GAA, recorded his sixth shutout of the season in the 2-0 victory over Holy Cross.
But Holy Cross is the first unranked team BU has truly handled this year. Following its big win over then-ranked No. 12 University of Connecticut, BU dropped a messy game to Harvard University. Then the Terriers lost to BC after their big win over St. John’s.
They were tied by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 1-1, in their only other game against an A10 team.
Maybe it’s just the state of Massachusetts?
More likely, the Terriers have a problem overlooking lesser opponents before and after big games.
BU should be able to avoid such mental distractions against Rhode Island. The Terriers are on the back-half of their non-conference schedule, and appear prepared to cruise ‘- the America East is alone on the horizon ‘- and the Terriers are the league’s only ranked team.
Rhode Island has gone 1-4 since its win over BC. The Rams’ offense has struggled even mightier than the Terriers’ ‘- they’ve scored just one goal over that stretch.
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