The Boston University men’s soccer team was once again within reach of ending a now 12-season long winless streak against Boston College, but the eventual 2-1 loss delays their chance for another year and stings a little extra after coming closer than they have in years.
From the start, both teams looked like they could be the one to break through as play moved between the field’s halves.
BC nearly did as Eagle freshman midfielder Jack Burkhardt sent BU’s second-time starter, junior goalkeeper William Clavier, diving at full extension. The shot went just high and wide, though, and the score remained deadlocked.
With a corner kick opportunity, junior forward Lapo Romieri’s delivery landed at the feet of freshman defender Anthony Harper just in front of the far post. Harper directed the ball into the bottom of the goal to put BU on top in the 17th minute for his first-career goal — and the earliest BU has scored in this matchup since 2015.
“[Anthony’s] been a great contributor, and added a lot of value and played a lot of minutes early on in his freshman campaign,” said Head Coach Kevin Nylen. “It’s his first goal and [it’s] a big goal.”
One of the better chances to double the lead, a misplayed pass from Eagle senior defender CJ Williams, allowed junior forward Andrea Di Blasio to grab the ball in space. In taking a few extra touches, though, the BC defenders closed in on him, and he sent the shot just over the right-hand corner of the goal.
That would be the Terriers’ last good chance of the half. In the final 20 minutes before the break, it was all BC, with four unanswered shots and a pair of corners to remind the Terriers the game was far from over.
Coming out of halftime, senior forward Damola Salami — the lone Terrier goalscorer in the reverse fixture last season — sent two shots in a span of three minutes, but nothing landed for BU and they regressed back to defending.
Soon enough, the Terriers were staring down the final three minutes of play with the one-goal lead they had successfully defended for the last 70 minutes, the end of the winless streak sitting in front of them.
In the 88th minute, however, BC’s Williams made up for his nearly game-costly mistake before the half, striking just beyond the penalty arc and wrenching the win away from the Terriers.
Not even a minute later, Williams sent a ball over the top that was crossed by BC junior forward Russell Brown, deflected off Harper of BU, and finished by BC forward Johannes Hanken Tjostheim.
Not only was the win gone, it had turned into a loss in an instant.
“[In] the second half, you do have chances, you do have service and now we just weren’t as clinical in terms of what we did in their box, and [we] paid for it at the end,” Nylen said.
Any opportunity to revive the result quickly slipped away, as the Eagles won two corners in a row, winding the clock down and keeping BU winless.
On Saturday, the Terriers continue their road trip to No. 24 Bucknell University before a return to the Boston-area to take on Harvard University next Tuesday.