No amount of bad luck could keep the Boston University men’s soccer team out of the playoffs. When they absolutely needed a win, the Terriers put together one of their most complete efforts of the season against the University of Hartford on Senior Night at Nickerson Field. The 1-0 victory came courtesy of a Petur Sigurdsson goal in the second half and a Terrier defense which might as well have put a brick wall in front of the net.
The winning goal came with just 16:49 left in the second half, which is when the Terriers have done the majority of their scoring this season. Freshman Richy Dorman received a crossing pass after the BU attack charged down the field and sent it right at Hawks goalkeeper Matt Glaeser. Glaeser dove to make the save, but was unable to keep possession of the ball, which bounced right to Sigurdsson who tipped it over the top of Glaeser and into the net.
“We’ve been saying, ‘get balls across, get balls across and good things happen,'” coach Neil Roberts said. “We finally got one across and Petur got on the end of it. Goal.”
After the goal, it was up to Hartford, who could not afford anything less than an outright win, to put the pressure on the Terriers. What surprised Roberts, however, is that the team that could afford nothing, but a win took so long to begin their aggressive attack.
“It was a midfield game. I really thought they would attack more because a tie doesn’t do them any good,” Roberts said. “They were just knocking balls in. They were hoping for a bounce. I really thought that they would come at us more.”
While most teams have come to Nickerson with a similar, conservative approach this season, the Hawks looked like a mirror image of the Terriers for much of the early going. Hartford spent most of the time in the first half trading possessions with the Terriers, who seemed more than content to wait for the best opportunity to score.
“The teams are very similar. They probably have a little bit more athleticism than we have and were more experienced in the back and at goal,” Roberts said.
That experience on the defensive side of the ball showed both on the field and on the scoreboard. While this was the sixth shutout this season for the Terriers-who have allowed less than a goal per game-it was the first time they didn’t allow a single shot on goal.
“When you need a win, you need to shoot, I couldn’t quite understand it,” Roberts said.
All season the Terriers have struggled with things not going their way in the opposing zone, including a 10-game streak without multiple scores. While the win wasn’t their best offensive showing, it was definitely their most efficient. Showing the patience on offense to pick their spots and wear down the defense at midfield, the Terriers had only three shots on goal and one out of three makes for a pretty good percentage.
“We’ve been pushing and pushing against teams all year and this is the game we had the least amount of shots and we scored a goal,” said senior goalkeeper Zach Riffett after what might be the last time he ever plays in home whites on Nickerson.
The win kept BU in fifth place in America East conference standings, but with a Stony Brook win and a UMBC loss, the Terriers separated themselves from the pack to ensure themselves a spot in the playoffs. All that could change now is a fifth place seed, or a drop to sixth with a loss to the University of Maine Saturday in the last game of the regular season. Fifth or sixth place, the Terriers sense that none of the higher seeds are looking forward to meeting them in the first round.
“The other teams are looking down on us and they don’t want to be seeded up against us, because we’re dangerous,” Riffett said. “When we were ranked higher, we were looking at the lower seeds and there were teams that we wanted to avoid.”
One thing is for sure-it won’t be the Terriers trying to avoid anybody. They’ll be ready for whomever.
“Doesn’t matter,” Riffett said. “We’re in and that’s all that matters. [We’ll] go anywhere and we’ll play anybody.”