If numbers don’t lie, then the statistics for Boston University goalkeepers this season present a truth more bent than a David Beckham free kick.
Junior goalkeepers Chad Comroe and Zach Riffett are both in the America East top 10 in saves per game and goals per game and both have been, as BU head coach Neil Roberts agreed, the most consistent players for the Terriers this season.
“Those are the only two guys, you know, that have … They’ve been steady for us,” he said. “they’ve allowed us to keep our head above water and be in a situation to turn things around.”
So it is certainly more than a little surprising that Chad Comroe, the junior co-captain who sports a 1.30 goals-against average and makes 3.6 saves per game, picked up his first win of 2005 in the team’s 12th game.
“It’s been a long time coming here, huh?” said Comroe following BU’s 3-0 win over Harvard University. “It feels great.”
Perhaps Comroe, a Dallas native, can commiserate with fellow Texan Roger Clemens about the problem that has plagued them both – a complete absence of offensive support.
But Comroe’s numbers, or lack thereof, might even make Clemens recoil in horror.
In his four losses, the offense scored a grand total of zero goals.
And even when the Terriers were able to score, Comroe seemingly couldn’t catch a break. He started in goal for BU’s 2-1 win over the University of Rhode Island but was ejected in the 57th minute.
Riffett stepped in and was credited with the win after senior midfielder Sedrick Chin scored the game-winning goal in the 87th minute.
“[Comroe] played fantastic against Brown and played well against Rhode Island,” Roberts said. “Is it surprising [that it took so long for his first win]? Yeah, but that’s sport and that’s the situation we’re in.”
With only five games left and all of them America East contests, the Terriers appear to be in a situation that is rapidly improving. BU won consecutive games for the first time this season in its last two, with Riffett posting the team’s first shutout of the season against the University at Albany and Comroe following that up with a blanking of Harvard.
A BU opponent hasn’t found the back of the net in 200:40.
“You’ve got to tell the guys to keep going and plugging away [when the offense is struggling] and the hard work’s starting to show right now,” Comroe said.
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