And then they waited.
Walking off the field following a 1-0 overtime loss to Binghamton University yesterday, the Boston University men’s soccer team knew they had let a sure thing slip away.
A win – even a tie – would have clinched a spot, but with the loss, BU had to hope that either the University of Hartford or the University at Albany lost – or else the Terriers would be left out in the cold.
But with a 2-0 Hartford loss to the University of New Hampshire, BU snuck in through the back door and clipped into the conference tournament by grabbing the sixth and final spot.
“We’re happy to get another chance,” said BU coach Neil Roberts. “We’re disappointed we couldn’t get a goal today.”
The Scarlet and White will get another chance to crack the stingy Binghamton defense on Saturday, when the sixth-seeded Terriers (6-8-3, 2-3-3 America East) will once again venture into upstate New York to face the third-seeded Bearcats (11-4-3, 4-2-2).
Saturday’s match-up will mark the second consecutive season the two teams have squared off in the postseason, and the second time in four days this year’s squads have met on the pitch.
“We know what they’re about,” said BU junior goalkeeper Zach Riffett. “We played them last year in the finals and we played them today. There’s not a lot of guessing about what the other team will do. Whoever wants it more will win.”
If the Terriers hope to defend last season’s conference title, they will have to find a spark for a stagnant offense that was outshot, 18-8, yesterday, including 10-3 in the second half, and didn’t register a single shot in overtime.
“We have to figure out a way to create scoring chances,” Roberts said. “That’s the big thing.”
Binghamton junior forward Peter Sgueglia collected a pass from junior midfielder Bryan Arnault in the 93rd minute and beat Riffett one-on-one to the lower left to gave Binghamton its first-ever victory over the Terriers.
BU was shut out for the ninth time in 17 games this season, as Binghamton earned its first overtime win since a 1-0 defeat of Long Island University on Oct. 23, 2001, a 19-game drought. Binghamton sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Bertoni notched his eighth shutout of the season and improved his 0.62 goals-against average that had him ranked 14th in the country entering yesterday’s game.
Riffett posted five saves on the day but was done in by sloppy field conditions when junior back Zach Kirby lost control on the muddy field and turned the ball over, giving Arnault the chance to feed Sgueglia for the overtime breakaway.
Much as it had in last Saturday’s 3-0 loss to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, BU played well enough in the first half to take a 0-0 draw into the locker room at halftime, but never managed to score the goal that would have put the Terriers in the lead.
The loss also marked the first road loss in-conference for BU this season. The Terriers entered yesterday’s game winless at home and undefeated on the road in America East play.
“It was one of those things where we had an opportunity to win, and we didn’t win,” Riffett said. “We got some luck with [UNH] beating Hartford.”
Saturday, the Terriers will have senior co-captain Matt Cross back in the lineup. Cross sat out Wednesday’s game after receiving a red card in the waning minutes of the 3-0 loss to UMBC.
But Roberts said the defense held up well in the absence of Cross, and that the bigger problem lies in the midfielders and forwards who failed to create quality scoring chances.
“The guys did well back there,” he said. “It wasn’t the back four that was struggling. Tomorrow we’re going to concentrate on how to get more chances. We need to create more chances than we are right now.”
Last season, Roland Erlichman (9 goals) and Sedrick Chin (7 goals) combined for 16 goals in 21 games; this year, the entire Terrier team has scored 16 goals through 17 games. Sophomore Erlichman and senior Chin have tallied only seven.
At times this season, the Terriers have created chances and failed to capitalize, such as in the 1-0 loss to Boston College on Sept. 4, but in the last two contests, BU hasn’t even been able to generate a consistent scoring attack.
But the defense and goalkeeping has been solid all season, and Riffett said that if the team can get one or two favorable bounces on the attack, BU’s season could still be salvaged.
“We just need one good bounce, and we’ll have a little more confidence,” he said. “We’ll just take it at ’em and we’ll be fine [against Binghamton].”
The two teams met last season in the conference championship game, and the Terriers edged the Bearcats, 5-3 on penalty kicks after two overtime periods left the score tied, 2-2.
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