After watching her offense get blanked twice last weekend at the Minnesota Gold Classic, Boston University women’s soccer coach Nancy Feldman had finally seen enough.
“We’re just not dangerous enough in the attack,” Feldman said Tuesday night. “In this particular case, I think it’s gone overboard. I think we have to open up our level of commitment to the attack when we have the ball.”
Take a quick glance at the box score from last night’s game against Brown University, and it’s clear the Terrier players got the message.
After totaling just 12 shots — seven of which were on goal — in its two games versus the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the Classic, BU exploded last night with 20 shots — 10 on goal — in a 1-0 home victory over the Bears.
BU made it clear that it would turn up the aggression early with two dangerous attacks in the first two minutes. The Terriers continued to assault the Brown defense consistently for a full 90 minutes — an accomplishment that impressed Feldman.
“I think this was actually a more difficult challenge,” Feldman said of combating the conservative Brown defense. “Sometimes, [a conservative team] is not an easy team to be aggressive against. The tempo is so slow, so we have to really be able to find the moments and get up to speed in the moments, and then recompose and relax and move in and then find the moment and get up to speed.”
Feldman said Tuesday she would open things up and let her team be more aggressive in the offensive zone, moving the backs up to be more aggressive in the midfield.
The adjustments worked to perfection, and the result was a well-oiled offensive machine constantly moving balls wide and crossing them effectively into the box.
“I thought we played the best offense we’ve played all season,” junior forward Farrell McClernon said. “I mean, we kind of came out with a different mentality. I think we were really thinking attack.”
The fact that the Terriers could only muster one goal on the night was a testament to the play of Brown goalkeeper Brenna Hogue. Hogue stood strong against a flurry of BU attacks, making nine saves, including a sprawling effort that stonewalled what should have been an easy tap-in goal for BU junior Casey Brown.
“[Hogue] does a great job because the ball hits her,” Feldman said. “Why does the ball hit her? Are we just seeing yellow and shooting at her, or does she just run herself out into the right place. I think it’s [the latter].”
Feldman cited Hogue’s shutouts against the then-No. 1 University of California-Los Angeles and then-No. 11 Penn State University, games in which Hogue stopped 12 and 18 shots, respectively.
“Tonight you could maybe say she was lucky, but when you put a couple of games together like that, it’s not lucky. She’s absolutely put herself in the right position to make the saves,” Feldman said.
Especially with conference play approaching, a win against stiff competition is always welcome. But most importantly for the Terriers is the newly discovered faith they have in their offense.
“A lot of it is just building confidence,” Feldman said. “We know we’ve had a hard schedule. We know we’ve been stretched. The reality is that in order to feel like you’re going to be successful you have to feel like you’ve been successful. I think there’s a strong belief in this team.
“The team has belief in themselves – [the coaches] have belief in them. It starts to wear on you when you’re not getting the results that you expect, and I think this is a good confidence booster.”