On Sunday, the team with the most overall conference honors earned its most important one to date.
The Boston University women’s soccer team captured its third America East Conference Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament with a thrilling win over the University of Maine on sudden death penalty kicks, 3-2, Sunday afternoon at Nickerson Field.
The two teams played to a scoreless tie after 90 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtimes, so league rules dictate that penalty kicks best of five, then one each if there is no winner determine a champion. When the teams remained tied, 2-2, after five kicks, freshman forward Lauren Erwin walked in from midfield in a sudden death situation. If she made her shot, Maine would have to convert on its opportunity.
Without hesitation, Erwin nailed the ball to the bottom right corner past Black Bear goalie Tanya Adorno to put BU ahead, 3-2. Senior goalie Jessica Clinton then turned away Annie Hamel’s drive inside the left post, to seal the championship for the Terriers.
‘I just tried to stay calm,’ Erwin said. ‘I was going to go to the right corner so I just kept my spot. I just concentrated, and it went in.’
Despite not having a shot on goal in the contest, BU won its third conference championship in four years on the back of Clinton, who made eight saves in the game on top of stopping four of six penalty kicks.
‘When other keepers start making saves, you start to get nervous and you’re like ‘Oh my God, I really have to make a huge difference,” Clinton said. ‘It goes through your head that there’s a little more pressure, but you get used to it after a while.’
Clinton also garnered the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award, allowing only one goal in two playoff games.
The Black Bears, a team that did not allow a goal in its final 292 minutes of tournament play, advanced by defeating the University of Hartford, 4-2, in penalty kicks (4-2) on Friday. BU beat the University of New Hampshire, 2-1, to stay alive.
On Sunday, BU converted on two of its first three penalty kicks, as Emily Dionne and Melissa Shulman scored after a Brooke Bingham miss. Clinton stopped the first three Maine shooters, putting the Terriers up 2-0 lead.
Adorno then kept Maine alive, stopping an attempt from sophomore Meghann Cook, and Linda Consolante beat Clinton high to the right corner to make it 2-1. The Terriers had a second chance to send Maine home, but sophomore Brittany McDonald failed to score on her kick. Jen Buckley still needed to convert on the fifth shot for the Black Bears, and she did to temporarily save their season to the lower left corner to tie it at 2-2.
That set the stage Erwin’s dramatic kick, and once Clinton made a diving save on Hamel, the Terriers began their celebration.
‘I thought those were two even teams the two best teams in the conference and it’s too bad we didn’t have enough time to just let it play out,’ said BU coach Nancy Feldman. ‘But give our kids credit that’s what you have to do to go on and we deserve it.’
The Black Bears had several chances to win the game in regulation, but could not capitalize on Terrier miscues. Heather Hathorn fired a shot from 25-yards away that fooled Clinton, but the senior recovered to make a jumping one-handed save in the 22nd minute.
Perhaps Maine’s best opportunity came in the second half, when Clinton mis-hit a goal kick down the middle. Maine’s Kate Crawford stole the ball and broke in alone but could not convert, as Clinton charged out of her box to cut down the shooting angle.
‘She came up big on that breakaway and that hasn’t traditionally been [her] strength,’ Feldman said. ‘[Crawford] shot it right at her because of how Jessica came out and got herself set.’
Maine’s last real scoring chance came in the final four minutes when Clinton misjudged a floating cross. The ball hit the left post and BU junior Lauren Ciccone had to make a sliding play to knock it out of bounds.
‘That’s the way it goes,’ said Maine coach Scott Atherley. ‘We live by the sword and we die by the sword. There are no gripes and no qualms on my part. We always say, ‘Never let the blood run too hot or too cold,’ because just as we were totally euphoric on Friday, today is the opposite end of the continuum.
‘We have no reason to be disappointed. Obviously we wanted to win and go to the NCAA Tournament, but the effort that my team gave today, I couldn’t ask for anything more. That’s life you don’t always get what you think you deserve but it doesn’t take away from the journey.’
In Friday’s semifinal game against New Hampshire, BU’s main objective was to contain the duo of Jackie Wishoski and Chiara Best. Even though the Terriers held the pair shotless in the previous meeting between the two schools, Wishoski exploded for five goals and an assist in New Hampshire’s quarterfinal match against Northeastern University and entered the game on a tear.
BU struck first when Erwin’s shot from outside the 18-yard box deflected off Wildcat goalie Liz MacKay and trickled to the left side of the goalie box. A charging Cook fought to get to the loose ball first and got just enough foot on it to kick it across the goal line in the 17th minute.
BU held its 1-0 lead until midway through the second half when New Hampshire was awarded a set piece just outside the Terriers’ 18-yard box. Erin Margentino led Wishoski as she came across the middle unmarked and the sophomore forward buried the ball in the back of the net on a one-timer.
‘We should have had Brittany [McDonald] on [Wishoski] on the free kicks,’ Feldman said. ‘I had it in my notes as something to talk about and it was absolutely something we should have done. After the goal scored, Susan [Marschall] turned to Brittany and said, ‘Next time, you have to take her.’ It was a little mistake … but they didn’t make us the goats.’
The tone remained tense as regulation time ticked away with BU acting as the aggressors and pushing the ball deep into the New Hampshire end. Shulman hit the cross bar after taking a pass from Dionne with 6:05 left, but the game-winning goal was only seconds away.
With less than five minutes left, Shulman took a throw in on the far side of the field and dribbled toward the end line hoping to create enough separation to unleash a cross into the box. She did, and waiting on the doorstep was Cook, whose one-timer past MacKay at 85:17 put BU on top to stay.
‘[Shulman] played an unbelievable ball on the far post and I … was kind of in the right place at the right time,’ Cook said. ‘It’s a great feeling. Even though I haven’t scored that many goals this season, it’s always a great feeling to score, especially in a big game.’
BU learns where it will play its first round game of the NCAA Tournament when the pairings are announced this afternoon.