It’s official. The Boston University men’s soccer team’s favorite number is one.
The Terriers began league play Saturday by playing to a 1-1 draw with the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. It’s the seventh consecutive game where neither the Terriers nor their opponents have scored more than one goal.
“It is what it is. It all comes down to finishing,” said BU coach Neil Roberts. “It’s pretty hard to win in overtime 1-0, so it all comes down to finishing. In most of the games we’ve played, with the exception of the Penn State game, [they were games] we totally controlled. We’ve just gotta start finishing. It’s a tough hill [to climb], but defensively as a group we do extremely well. We are creating many more chances.”
Saturday, the Terriers (5-1-4, 0-0-1 America East) found themselves down just before the half as their struggles to find the back of the net in the first frame continued.
UMBC’s (3-5-2, 0-0-1) goal came in the 38th minute when forward Dan Maudslay accepted the ball at the top of the box. The freshman from York, England chipped it down the left flank to forward Andrew Gillis, who fired a shot past BU goalkeeper Zach Riffett from nine yards out.
The Terriers had a chance to tie the game just before the half, but both of their shots hit the goalpost, leaving the Retrievers up at the break.
“Going there is always a difficult place to play, but you don’t know what you deserve until you start playing,” Roberts said. “We thought we deserved better. We controlled the match from start to finish and to not to get the result that we really wanted was a little disappointing. And UMBC was very happy to come away with a point.”
BU eventually netted the tying goal, but it wasn’t until the 78:41 mark of the contest. Freshman Samuel Appiah started up a counter attack after a nice give-and-go from Jin Oh. Appiah was left wide open, one on one with UMBC goalie Steve King, and he fired it past King from eight yards out. It was Appiah’s second goal on the year.
“It’s good to see our outside midfielders getting into the attack,” Roberts said. “Whether they score or create, we haven’t really had that a lot, so it’s a good thing.”
The Terriers couldn’t get much going in overtime and Riffett made a key save to preserve the draw in BU’s fifth double overtime contest of the season.
“I think the impression on the way we played, I think we fought hard, we battled,” Roberts said. “We defended pretty well and we controlled the game from start to finish, but we didn’t’ quite get the result that we hoped for. With effort that we put forth it’s a little disappointing that we left two points on the table. They made some mistakes and we didn’t take advantage.”
For Roberts, the season is progressing nicely and the Terriers are adjusting well from game to game. Aside from the offense not completely clicking yet, Roberts’ other chief concern is the aggressiveness of the backfield.
“What concerns me is that our defenders get so excited and try to get into the attack and score,” Roberts said. “They used a lot of energy [Saturday], and that really sets us up for what happened in the Brown game. We need to be more patient and waiting for our opportunities.”
Unfortunately, not capitalizing and the inability to finish games has been a running storyline for the Terriers this season.
“The commitment from the players was extremely good the whole match,” Roberts said. “[UMBC] was physical and we dealt with it. They had two chances the whole match and Riffett made a great save on one and [Zach] Kirby made a save of the rebound to knock it out of there. Both times they got behind our players, but it only led to one goal. Those things can be corrected. Young players make mistakes. It’s just about not giving up a lot of chances.”
Sophomore Neil Hlavaty had a game-high six shots and BU had a 19-4 shot advantage on the afternoon. The Terriers will face Binghamton University at home this Saturday at 7 p.m.