Now is not a good time for the Boston University field hockey team to lose its scoring touch. Not when an optimistic beginning is fast becoming familiar to last year’s stumbling start. Not when goaltending greatness is going for naught. And especially not when two of America’s best teams are awaiting the Terriers’ arrival in Maryland.
But as the Terriers trek south to play a pair of games in the University of Maryland’s Terrapin Classic, they find themselves in the midst of a drought that has sapped them dry for the past two games, including a scoreless span that is at 153:30 and counting. The last time the Terriers scored was on Labor Day, when freshman midfielder Amy Seaman’s tally in the 69th minute capped a 7-1 rout of Quinnipiac University.
Since then, BU has dropped a pair of 1-0 decisions, the most recent coming Wednesday night to Boston College. The Terriers went bone dry that night, incapable of getting even a single shot on the Eagles’ net and drawing only two penalty corners.
That effort came on the heels of an overtime loss to the College of William and Mary during which BU attempted only seven shots and six corners. For the last two games, BU is averaging about one shot every 22 minutes. And considering this weekend’s opponents, both of which qualified for the NCAA Final Four last fall, three shots per game is not going to cut it.
BU takes on American University (3-1) this afternoon at 4 p.m. before playing the host — and No. 1 team in the nation — Maryland on Sunday at College Park. For BU’s ailing offense, though, an appointment with American doesn’t figure to cure anything.
The Eagles boast the East Coast Athletic Conference’s hottest goalie, Laura Miller, who is coming off a shutout and has carried American with a stingy 1.16 goals against average. The Eagles’ offense relies heavily on senior forward Magdalena Aguilar, the team leader in goals with three, and points with seven. Touted as the best playmaker in the Patriot League, what’s more telling of Aguilar’s importance is the 22 shots she has fired at opposing goalies thus far. That number is more than triple any of her teammates, and comparatively, BU’s entire team has just 34 shots this season.
Shots against, though, hasn’t been a problem for the Terriers, thanks in large part to the play of goalie Susan Harrington. Sporting a paltry 0.99 goals against average thanks to an .862 save percentage, BU’s lone senior has kept her team in every game this year, allowing a solo goal in each of the team’s four games. Harrington will be under the gun all weekend, first by an American assault and trailed shortly by an even more balanced and potent Maryland onslaught.
The Terrapins (4-0) earned the top billing in the season’s first national poll, and through four games are outshooting opponents 64-18. Sophomore Colleen Barbieri, the ACC Player of the Week, leads the team with nine points, but Maryland’s diverse attack also features a pair of eight-point scorers and three players with ten or more shots.
That type of firepower has been more than enough for goalie Kerry Hearsey, who has needed to make only nine saves in compiling a goals against average of 0.50 for last year’s national runner-up. BU ranked just off the poll, receiving the most votes among the also-rans for an unofficial spot at No. 21. For the Terriers to compete with the Terps, they must continue to play stellar defense while at the same time escaping the drought that has them recently trudging shin-guard high in sand.
Wouldn’t upsetting the country’s best team be a welcome oasis?
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