After seeing their undefeated season ended prematurely at the hands of Brown University Thursday, and tying a Cornell University team which they outplayed, the Boston University men’s soccer team beat the University of Rhode Island outright Wednesday-and one goal was all they needed. They did it in almost the exact same fashion as the last two games, only this time there were no crunch-time mistakes or desperation goals. So this time, they won.
For the first two games of this home stand, the Terriers couldn’t score in the first half or muster more than one goal. That continued last night, but their one score was enough to give them a win as BU closed out the first half of the season and now begins conference play this weekend.
“I’m extremely happy tonight to win,” said Terrier goalkeeper Zach Riffett. “We struggled the last two home games so it was good from a team standpoint. On Saturday, it’s a whole new season.”
The BU goal was scored by sophomore forward Dan Schultz when he rebounded a Neil Hlavaty shot and sent a grounder past the left side of the Rhode Island goalkeeper. The scoring play was nearly identical to the one which Jin Oh scored on against Cornell when he redirected a rebound into the goal after sprinting in from midfield. Coach Neil Roberts cited this as a result of the team working on sending men into the box to make things happen after shots.
With an early goal in the first five minutes of the second half, the Terriers remained aggressive and almost put another on the board, but were held back by a few nice defensive plays and an untimely offsides call. As has been customary lately, the last 10 minutes put BU on its heels, as they started playing safe and eating up the clock. This time they kept together and played solid defense inside the box to outlast a desperate and lengthy attack from Rhode Island.
“I think it was a mental thing that it happened twice,” Riffett said. “It’s done and over with, but were stronger for it. We’re not going to make those mistakes.”
The Terriers were more efficient yesterday on offense, converting one out of their five shots on goal, but this was the sixth straight game in which they managed to put just one ball in the back of the net. Just one more goal and those late game attacks by desperate opponents might be a little easier to handle.
“As long as we win and everybody is working for each other and at the end of the game we say we put forth our best effort then I’m comfortable with the talent we have that if its 1-0 its 1-0, if its 2-1 its 2-1,” Riffett said. “We’ll take more goals, but defensively if we can get one, were strong, we have a strong team defense, and were pretty comfortable with that.”
Coach Neil Roberts, who had his team working on offense all week long, identified the low scores as a result of team playing them more defensively, and from the need to have a more balanced attack from all positions.
“We need to get some penetration from the flanks,” Roberts said. “If we can start getting goals from our midfield then it makes it easier on our frontline to start getting goals.”
It’s not for a lack of opportunities that the Terriers aren’t scoring, as they have had 21 shots on goal in their last three games.
While a few more goals would make things easier, the lack of scoring has helped the Terriers identify themselves as a grind-it-out sort of soccer team.
BU is sure to keep on battling even more now that they head into their conference schedule, starting this Saturday as the Terriers head out on the road to face the Retrievers of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.