“Is this how we’re going to lose?”
That is what senior goalkeeper Matt Smith thought as a ball off the foot of his own defender rolled past him toward his own net. Smith, expecting an easy pass, instead had to sprint back and kick the ball away just inches from his own goal line during the first half of the Boston University men’s soccer team’s 1-0 win over the University of Connecticut.
“It was definitely the defender’s fault,” Smith said, only half-jokingly in his thick English accent. “He played me an awful ball on my left foot, and he knows I’m right-footed. He really stitched me up there. But luckily though, my quick reflexes got me back there so I could play it off the line.”
Fortunately for the Terriers, Smith got to that one, along with nine balls actually shot by the Huskies. Smith’s second straight shutout carried the team to its fourth straight win; one Smith described as the biggest in his four-year career.
“Undoubtedly [it’s the biggest], I mean it’s a win over a top-10 team,” he said. “We’re trying to break into that bracket, and now we’re sitting on the edge.”
Smith was the standout goalie in the game, even against Connecticut’s freshman phenom Adam Schuerman, who only tallied one save Tuesday night. Until the goal by Terrier sophomore Federico Bianchi, Schuerman, the reigning Big East Conference goalie of the week, had recorded three straight shutouts, going over 338 minutes between goals allowed; more than five and a half hours of shutout ball.
Smith had to make many more acrobatic stops than Schuerman, as the Terriers only put two of their 11 shots on net.
“Matt came up big, especially after we got the lead,” said BU coach Neil Roberts. “After the goal, we knew they were going to come back hard at us for a few minutes.”
Smith, whose goals against average dipped below one to .96 per game, was excited with the win, but said he realizes that the Terriers need to win these games more often to be discussed among the nation’s elite.
“We need to continue to get these kind of results against top-10 teams in order to place ourselves alongside them,” Smith said.
While Smith might be racking up the individual statistics and is the clear leader on the field, bellowing orders to his defenders throughout the game, he was quick to deflect much of the credit to those playing in front of him.
“Our defense has been playing well the past couple of games,” he said. “We haven’t really given the opposition many chances, so it’s made my job easy. I’m happy as long as I can make a couple of easy saves in every game.”