Even though the Boston University men’s soccer team won its first two games of the season, coach Neil Roberts knew there was still a lot of work to be done-mainly on defense.
So what did his team do in its next two outings?
Only record back-to-back shutouts.
The Terriers (3-0-1) continued their scalding play over the weekend by registering convincing victories over Georgia Southern (2-1-0), 3-0, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (1-1-0), 1-0, to remain undefeated on the year.
“We’re starting to create chances, and it’s staring to come through on the other side of the ball,” Roberts said. “We scored three down in Georgia. It’s not there yet, but it’s getting better. Even on Sunday, we created a number of chances, and we’re improving.”
Aside from dominant play on defense, sophomore Petur Sigurdsson scored two goals to keep up his torrid pace. After the game against GSU, he had found the back of the net four times in three games.
“He’s playing really well in the offensive zone. With the amount of chances he’s getting, he’s putting a lot of shots on goal,” Roberts said. “He still needs to refine his game all over the field, but when he gets his legs under him and a little more mobile he’s gonna be really solid.”
Sigurdsson’s goals wouldn’t come as easily as they did, however, if it weren’t for major help from his supporting cast. In BU’s victory over the Tigers, sophomore Dan Schultz recorded a pair of assists. Another key contribution came from freshman Samuel Appiah, who beat GSU goalkeeper Brian Young high off a cross from Schultz for his first collegiate goal.
“Schultz is starting to move off the ball well, he’s really worked hard out there, holding the ball first and then creating chances,” Roberts said. “He just goes out there and makes things happen.”
Traveling to Georgia isn’t your everyday journey, but the Terriers handled it surprisingly well, especially considering the extreme heat.
“It was good to get the guys out on the road to a different part of the country,” Roberts said. “It worked out really well for us. We just dealt with the heat down there and just played.”
The next stop on the Terriers road trip was in New Jersey where sophomore Neil Hlavaty scored the game’s lone goal in the 47th minute and senior goalkeeper Zach Riffett saved three shots to pick up his first shutout of the season. The Terriers’ previous shutout was a combined effort from Riffett and freshman Joe Cullaro.
“It was a good game,” Roberts said. “We controlled the tempo start to finish, had a lot of chances and held them to only a few. Even though the score was only 1-0, for us to get the win on the road after flying late at night from Georgia was nice.”
Roberts was also pleased with the fact that the Terriers scored the games first goal for the second time in two outings. While the Terriers have yet to score in the first half, getting the first goal is extremely important.
“It was good to see us be able to score first and get a lead,” Roberts said. “That was one of our goals going into the weekend, we wanted to score first. It’s such a good thing because it creates a lot of chances.”
BU will need all the chances they can get this weekend as they travel to Pennsylvania State University to play in the Penn State Nike Classic. The Terriers are pitted against Ohio State in the first game of the tournament and will play the host school, No. 13 Penn State, Sunday.
“This is gonna be a great test for us,” Roberts said. “They were both nationally ranked at beginning of the year, both advanced in the NCAA Tournament last year and they’re both just very solid teams, so we’ll definitely see where we stand.”