After playing 88 minutes of slow-paced soccer bogged down with fouls and stoppages, the Boston University men’s soccer team had just enough left in the tank to close out a 2-1 victory over Fairfield University last night at Nickerson Field.
Junior captain Andy Dorman was able to break free in the 89th minute to pound a perfect feed from sophomore back Erik Evjen into the back of the net to give the Terriers (2-1-1, 0-0-0 America East) a hard-fought win. In a very physical game, Dorman had the game-winning goal, one assist and a nasty blow to the head, while freshman Sedrick Chin added the other goal.
The Stags (0-1-0, 0-0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) opened the scoring in the 10th minute after a sloppy chip into the midfield by the Terriers. Senior back Justin Thompson sent a high ball into the BU penalty area where Richard Morton played a perfect volley over the diving Terrier keeper, senior Matt Smith.
“We weren’t really intense at the beginning of the game,” said Terrier head coach Neil Roberts. “We played a ball to the midfield, just a chip ball to nobody, they played it in really quickly, and the guy took a nice shot and finished it.”
While the rest of the first half seemed bogged down with fouls, the Terriers had their chances. Chin missed one breakaway early on a diving stop by Fairfield freshman goalie Andrew Frankel, then had two shots from close range later in the half that were unable to find the twine.
“That style is not fun to watch and not fun to play.” Roberts said. “But we see a lot of it in the conference and you just have to try to get a result out of it.”
Chin finally converted with only 1:10 remaining in the first half, beating his defender after taking a lead pass from Dorman, and firing one past the outstretched hands of Frankel.
The second half was filled with pushing, shoving and plenty of bumps and bruises. Dorman left the field for a few minutes with a head injury, Chin spent much of the half limping after being kicked earlier in the game, and sophomore midfielder Federico Bianchi was carried off the field after catching one in the ankle.
Just as the game looked like it was headed to overtime, the last of Fairfield’s 29 fouls came back to haunt it. After a call in the midfield, Evjen saw that the Stags had momentarily slowed down, and he caught a glimpse of Dorman breaking down the right middle. He placed the ball on the turf and sent a perfect lob over the defense to find Dorman all alone in the box. Dorman made no mistake, chipping the ball over the charging Frankel for the game winner.
“What did them in was another foul in the midfield,” Roberts said. “Erik saw Andy making the run from deep and just played it over top. We knew he [Dorman] was beating them a lot outside.”
Many Fairfield players screamed for an offside call on Dorman, but because he was making the run from so deep, he was clearly onside when Evjen played the ball.
“We played pretty well given the circumstances [the rough play] and how their team played.” Dorman said. “We’ve gotten a lot stronger in the midfield and defensively. I thought they got through our defense quite a few times Friday night [against the University of Massachusetts at Amherst].
After a tough first half, the Terrier attack had a few more quality opportunities in the second half, something Dorman said the team was looking for.
“We went to two up top [two attackers up front] and I think that helped us a lot,” he said. “We had more options up there and I think it led to more chances.”
As of Tuesday night, Chin, Dorman and Bianchi were all expected to be in the lineup Friday night when the Terriers continue their homestand against Dartmouth University.
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