Soccer, Sports

Men’s soccer ends season with overtime loss to Bucknell

The season ended in disappointment for the Boston University men’s soccer team when it lost by a score of 1-0 against Bucknell University Saturday afternoon in overtime.

Had the Terriers (6-10-1, 3-6 Patriot League) been able to get the win at Nickerson Field, they would have qualified for the Patriot League Tournament.

BU had several chances to capitalize on Bucknell’s (12-5-1, 5-3-1 Patriot League) mistakes, but the Terriers could not get any shots to find the back of the net.

“I think we did everything except get the goal,” said BU coach Neil Roberts. “We were talking about it after the game. We probably had about 30 opportunities to cross the ball inside the offensive third and we should have had 30 services and we probably had about half of that. But that should still be enough to get you something.”

The Terriers came close to pulling ahead on multiple occasions, including in the 30th minute, when senior midfielder Anthony Ciccone crossed into the box. Bucknell goalie Mike Lansing came out of the net to punch the ball out, but he missed. Unfortunately for BU, sophomore forward Mac McGuire’s header attempt went over the net.

Junior forward Dominique Badji was once again a huge presence offensively for the Terriers. He hit the post in the 51st minute and led the team in shots with seven during the contest. He also led all Terriers in shots on the year with 58.

“Dom again played well, played hard, he hit the post,” Roberts said.

It looked like things were going to go BU’s way in the 68th minute when senior forward Ali Sozeri was fouled by defender Connor Willings on a counterattack. This led to an automatic red card for Willings, as he was the last man back.

For the rest of the game, Bucknell was down a man with only 10 players out on the pitch.

BU looked to capitalize on the man advantage. However, the Terriers could not muster that one goal that they so desperately needed.

The final game of the season for the Terriers also saw an influx of new talent out on the field, as freshmen defender Duff Bedrosian came into the game in the 21st minute and did not come out for the remainder of the match.

Bedrosian had only played in four games before Saturday and he had started in two of them.  The increase in playing time can be accredited to his improvement on the practice field.

“Duff’s been training well all season,” Roberts said. “It’s just a matter of fitting him in and being patient with him. … He’s a kid, you never know with the young guys, but in training, he’s just been getting better and better and he did well today.”

Roberts also made a surprise substitution when he inserted freshman midfielder David Asbjornsson in the 69th minute.  The Reykjavik, Iceland native started 16 games for the Terriers this year, but had been limited over the last few contests due to an ankle injury, which Roberts said might require surgery.

Bucknell got the golden goal in overtime when freshman Chris Thorsheim took the ball off a throw in on the far side of the net and made a move to get inside the box. Thorsheim then launched the ball past diving redshirt freshman goalkeeper Matt Gilbert to give the Bison the victory in the 95th minute.

Roberts said that the loss was disappointing.

“We said this coming into the game that Bucknell was a very opportunistic team and we let them spin us on the inline and that’s a shame,” Roberts said.

Saturday was also the last game played by seniors Ciccone, Sozeri, midfielder Evan Nadaner, midfielder Vicente Colmenares and midfielder Fannar Arnarsson. All of the seniors had a huge impact for the Terriers this season, especially Ciccone, who finished this season with seven assists, second among all Patriot League players.

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