The biggest crowd of the season leapt off the plastic seats and metal benches at Boston University’s Nickerson Field. Those walking on the catwalk behind West Campus stopped and applauded. Students in Sleeper and Claflin Halls turned away from their desks and looked out their windows. Alumni and family who couldn’t make it to the game listened to WTBU’s webcast and pumped their fist at Mark Mirlocca’s game-ending bellow, “Gooooaaal.”
Meanwhile, the Terrier bench exploded. Arms in the air, all 29 players and coaches hurdled the plastic boards surrounding the sidelines and charged toward Susan Marschall.
In the 102nd minute of a physical, back-and-forth America East championship game, the senior back headed home a corner kick to give the Terrier women’s soccer team the conference title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament with a 2-1 double overtime victory over the University of Maine Saturday.
“This is what you work for since last February, which is when you sort of start the next season,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman. “It sounds like a cliché, but all your energy is going to getting to this point of the season and getting to the NCAA Tournament.”
The win gave the Terriers (13-4-4, 8-0-1 America East) their fourth America East Championship – all coming in the past six years – and sustained a stretch that saw them play nine undefeated conference games this season.
“It’s a marathon,” Feldman said of the regular-season schedule. “To go undefeated through the conference season all the way to now … it’s a huge achievement not to slip up.”
BU is now undefeated in its past 11 games and has only lost once in its past 16 contests. But this one may have been the hardest-fought of all.
“It hasn’t really set in yet,” Marschall said. “We did not want to go to [penalty kicks].”
Marschall, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, made sure that they didn’t have to when she scored her fourth goal of the season – her third off a corner kick – when a perfect ball out of the left corner off the foot of fellow senior Meghann Cook found her head. Marschall headed the ball with emphasis past Black Bear keeper Jasmine Phillips and into the back of the net.
“I was wide open on the corner kick,” Marschall said. “I don’t know why they didn’t mark me, but I was happy that they didn’t. It was a perfect ball from Cook and I had all day to head it.”
“[Marschall]’s great in the air,” Feldman said. “I could not believe it. I could see it happening. It was slow motion. [The ball] was coming to her head and she just bent back and you could see she was going to drive it. You could see the whole thing just happen, and she wasn’t going to miss that one.”
“Susan is probably our fiercest, most determined player,” Feldman said. “She wants the ball. She deserves to be tournament MVP – not just for today, but for how she has led our team all season long.”
The Terriers took the lead in the 12th minute on their first corner kick of the game. Cook opted not to send a cross in the box and instead sent the ball short nearside to Ashley LoCasale, who fed it back to Cook. Cook then passed the ball off to Lauren Erwin, who knocked it over to Erica Lee in the middle of the box.
Lee, a stay-at-home defender who hadn’t scored a goal all season, picked an opportune time to get her first. The junior back touched the ball with her right foot, spun around and launched a left-footed shot into an empty net, catching America East Goalkeeper of the Year Jasmine Phillips out of position and giving the Terriers a 1-0 lead.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Lee said. “We tied Maine in the regular season, and they scored late in the game and we felt robbed. We knew we had to score and execute against them. We didn’t want to go to penalty kicks. We didn’t even want to go to overtime, but we got it done.”
The Black Bears knotted the game at 1-1 late in the second half. In the 80th minute, Heather Hathorn tattooed the ball from 40 yards out past a stunned Christina Reuter and into the upper left corner of the goal.
“I was on the girl when she shot and scored, and I don’t like to have the person I’m marking score the goal,” Marschall said. “After that, I really wanted to help out and get another.”
Of course, she did get another, sending the Black Bears home, the fans into celebration and her team into the NCAA Tournament.
But for now, the Terriers will wait. They’ll find out who they’re playing today when the NCAA Women’s Soccer Selection Show airs at 5 p.m. on ESPNews.
“We’re excited,” Feldman said. “Sixty-four teams get to go and there are about 300 or so Division I women soccer programs. There are a lot of people who aren’t playing after today or tomorrow.”
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