The Big One

It’s do or die. And it’s all in the Terriers’ hands.

But when you’re the preseason top dog heading into your last game of the regular season teetering on the brink of a playoff berth, needing at least tie to assure yourself a spot in postseason play, would you want to face Ryan Bertoni and the 10-4-3 Binghamton University?

“We gotta go with what we’ve been trying to do the last couple games,” said Boston University men’s soccer coach Neil Roberts. “Just create chances and put them away.”

But the Terriers have struggled to create such offensive opportunities as of late, scoring just one goal in their last three outings and just seven in all of October. And facing the nation’s No. 14 goalkeeper in terms of goals-against average won’t help their scoring frustrations.

The Bearcats are 3-2-2 in America East play this season, and their sophomore netminder has been a catalyst of their success. With a 0.62 goals-against average, allowing just 11 goals on the season, Bertoni has posted six shutouts in 17 games. But that’s not even good enough to top the conference. The University of Maryland-Baltimore County’s Steve King and the University of New Hampshire’s Brian Levey do that.

For a team that averages just one goal per game, BU may have a tough time breaking through the wall that is Bertoni. Factor in Binghamton’s 12.59 shots per game and 23 regular-season goals, and the Terrier team needs to come ready to win. If they don’t – depending on the play of the University of Hartford and the University at Albany – it could be the end for the 6-7-3 (2-2-3) BU squad.

Now, think about doing it all without one of your senior leaders, one of the anchors of your back line.

Senior captain Matt Cross will be forced to sit out the Binghamton game after receiving a red card in the final minute of Saturday’s 3-0 loss to UMBC. Today’s contest will mark the first game in 63 showings that the back will be missing from the Terrier lineup and the first outing in the last 62 he won’t be starting.

Cross’s absence also leaves the Terriers without a captain on the field. Junior captain Chad Comroe will watch from the bench with sidelined co-captain, senior Jamie Johnson, as junior goalkeeper Zach Riffett will get the nod for today’s start, according to Roberts.

“[Binghamton is] a little bit different than UMBC in that they’re gonna be a little more direct and we’ll have to deal with it in the back,” Roberts said. “Without Crossy, that will be a little more difficult.”

Still, the Terriers have their past working for them. The two BUs have matched up four times – a series in which the Terriers hold a 2-0-2 advantage.

“Every year is new – different players, different situations,” Roberts said. “You really don’t dwell on last year. This is a whole new situation, and beating them twice last year doesn’t really help us this year.”

But the Bearcats hadn’t notched a single goal against the Terriers until last year’s America East title game matchup – a 2-2 draw that the Terriers won in penalty kicks, 5-3.

And this is the first time the teams have met since the Terriers won the America East Tournament Championship in a shootout last season, too. Throw that on top. No pressure.

“We gotta be good defensively,” Roberts said. “We gotta be able to hold them out – that’s the key. We gotta make sure that we don’t give up any second chances to them.”

The Terriers will have a consistently stalwart wall between the posts in Riffett to make sure that doesn’t happen. Riffett is 5-2-3 on the season with just a 1.28 goals-against average – not bad for a goalie who endured a 5-0 defeat to then top-ranked Indiana University in the early weeks of the season.

But still, Roberts stressed the same things he has all season.

“We need to be defensively clean and create chances,” he said. “I think if we create a number of chances, we’ll get some goals.”

If the Terriers do win over a Binghamton squad that has been nationally ranked this season, they would clinch the fourth seed in the conference tournament and earn the right to a rematch of tomorrow’s game against the Bearcats at home – an option that may not be all that appealing to a Terrier team that is winless in conference home field play this season.

A tie would guarantee BU a tournament berth, leaving Albany and Hartford to fight for the remaining tournament slot, but would not allow the Terriers to host.

A loss today to Binghamton, however, could mean the end of the Terriers’ season.

“It’s obviously not a situation we want to be in … but we gotta deal with it,” Roberts said. “This is really a situation that the character of the individuals will really show. When you’re already in the tournament and you’re playing for the first or second seed, it’s easier than this situation. It’s gonna be a good test to see how they deal with this.”