Ali Sozeri may have played less than a third of the game between the Boston University men’s soccer team and No. 1/3 University of Connecticut, but when BU coach Neil Roberts subbed him in, the junior forward certainly made it count.
Sozeri scored the a game-tying goal in the second half against the Huskies in Storrs, Conn., Sunday night, and the BU defense and sophomore goalkeeper Nick Thomson made it stand up as the Terriers (1–3–1) salvaged a tie.
It was the first time this season the 4–0–1 Huskies did not beat their opponent.
“If it wasn’t for some spectacular plays by their goalkeeper, we might have been able to get out of there with a win,” Roberts said. “It was against a very good team on the road, and the positive thing for me was that we were down a goal in a difficult place to play against one of the top teams in the country, and you don’t give up [more] goals.”
UConn took an early 1–0 lead just seconds shy of 30 minutes into the first half when All-American forward Carlos Alvarez found the back of the net from the top right corner of the 18-yard box.
BU came back with a vengeance, though, outshooting the Huskies 10–5 in the second half. One of those shots came from Sozeri, who poked in a cross from junior midfielder Derek McCaffrey in the 61st minute.
Thomson, who has played every minute of every game for BU in the early going, made five saves in net, including one in the first overtime.
“Nick has been playing really well all season long,” Roberts said of his goalie, who has a 1.55 goals-against average. “We kind of let him down as a team because he made the initial save [on UConn’s goal] and we weren’t able to get the rebound and they ended up scoring off of it.”
Sozeri, meanwhile, has seen his playing time steadily increase the last three games after losing his starting spot in late August. He got in for just 10 minutes against then–No. 1 University of North Carolina on Sept. 2 and saw it jump to 24 minutes against Providence College on Friday.
On Sunday, 34 minutes on the field resulted in Sozeri’s first goal as a Terrier.
“He’s still trying to figure out the pace of Division I and it’s a lot different than what he was used to,” Roberts said of Sozeri, who transferred from Division II Lesley University this year. “[Sunday] was the first day he looked dangerous and was active in front, so I think that’s a good sign for the future for us — and for him.”
BU had previously visited and tied Providence by the same score Friday afternoon, though the game had a bit of a flipped script. This time it was the Terriers jumping out ahead thanks to junior midfielder Anthony Ciccone’s first goal of the season in the sixth minute.
However, Thomson gave up a goal to Friar midfielder/forward Wilder Arboleda in the 59th minute, and the score stayed knotted at one for more than 60 minutes before ending after two overtimes.
Roberts said his team controlled the game for the first 30 minutes before Providence took the momentum.
The Terriers did not get it back until overtime, according to the coach, and by then it was not enough time to capitalize.
Although the Terriers did not record a win, they may have had a bit of a morale victory by limiting a pair of Big East opponents to just a goal apiece while playing without key defender, junior Kelvin Madzongwe.
Madzongwe hurt his knee earlier this month and Roberts said Monday the reigning conference Defender of the Year is done for the season with a torn ACL. Madzongwe will have surgery in about a week.
That means he will be absent for the Terriers’ home-opener at Nickerson Field on Thursday, when BU will take on No. 24 Brown University. The Terriers will be looking for some revenge, as last meeting between BU and Brown ended in the Bears shutting out the Terriers 2–0 at Stevenson Field.
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