As the Fairfield University men’s soccer team sprinted from its bench to swarm Sam Bailey on Saturday night, Chad Comroe crumpled in front of his goal to the Nickerson Field turf. Long after the Stags’ celebration had calmed, the Boston University sophomore goalkeeper was still flat on the field.
Minutes before, Comroe was late on a diving save-attempt in the second overtime of the Terriers’ 3-2 loss. After he stopped Alex Cunliffe’s free kick from straight on, Comroe watched Danny Attwell flip the rebound to Bailey, who was alone next to the right goal post.
Bailey slammed the pass into the goal’s bottom-left corner, and as Comroe watched the ball fly by him, he felt the depressing weight of the Terriers’ fourth straight loss to start the season. BU surrendered three straight goals after leading 2-0 in the first half.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pretty dejected after that game,” Comroe said on Sunday. “[Bailey] just ended up getting it by the post. And when he’s open from there, he’s not going to miss.”
Like a quarterback in football or a pitcher in baseball, the man between the posts is usually the first to shoulder the blame of a soccer team’s loss. BU coach Neil Roberts, however, said his keeper shouldn’t be held responsible for his team’s second-half collapse.
“When you’re a goalkeeper, obviously, it’s not all your fault,” Roberts said after the loss. “We didn’t play well in front of him.”
Comroe made seven saves in the game, but he had little help on the three Stag scores.
BU led 2-0 in the 58th minute when Fairfield’s Steve Desmond took the ball into the Terriers’ zone and found Dave Thomas in front. With only the BU keeper in front of him, Thomas fired high and right past a frozen Comroe.
In the 83rd minute, Desmond again took the ball through the BU box and slipped a pass left to Bailey. As Comroe moved to his right with the ball, Bailey scored on the keepers’ left.
And in the 107th minute, Comroe was left scrambling as the ball found its way to an unguarded Bailey and into the net.
“[Fairfield] really only came down on us twice, and both times the guy made it 40, 50 yards with the ball and nobody touched him,” Roberts said. “There’s not much Chad can do there.
“[On the last play,] we saved the ball and we just didn’t get to the second ball,” he added. “That’s pretty much what [Fairfield was] doing for the whole half – getting to the second ball.”
Comroe, though, showed flashes of the player that won eight games in 14 starts last season. In the first half, he met Attwell just inside the goal box and stopped a point-blank attempt, and while he couldn’t recover on Bailey’s game-winner, the first stop on Cunliffe was one for the highlight reel.
“I’m still confident,” Comroe said. “I’ve been on a lot of teams, and I feel, with this team, we can win any game.”
Last season, Comroe emerged as the team’s top keeper in a competition with classmate Zach Riffett. He started almost every conference game for the Terriers, recording a .756 save percentage and giving up 1.26 goals per game.
In three starts this season, Comroe’s save percentage has dropped slightly to .742, but his goals-against average has nearly doubled to 2.47.
Riffett (2.73 goals-against average in seven games last season) hasn’t impressed enough to win the starting job, and because Comroe has started three of four games this year, it appears that Roberts will again ride Comroe through the upcoming America East schedule.
Despite the rocky start, Comroe said he has to pick himself off the turf and prepare for the rest of the season.
“I’m looking forward to [Monday’s] practice,” he said. “We’ve got to see how we’re going to respond.”
After both teams had cleared the field on Saturday, Comroe slowly rose from the turf and bent over and clutched his knees. He paced around the area to the right of the goal, and after a few minutes, he began the long walk to the locker room.
As a goalkeeper, Comroe said he knows that he and the team have to learn from their most recent setback.
“The team has to regroup,” he started, “and I have to regroup.”