Terrier backfield falters v. Albany

The Boston University men’s soccer team began its conference schedule with a 3-0 loss to the top-scoring team in America East ‘-‘- the University at Albany ‘-‘- Saturday at Nickerson Field. Senior midfielder Don Johnson led the way for the Great Danes with his first two goals of the season.
‘It’s very disappointing,’ BU coach Neil Roberts said. ‘We think we’re making strides and on the verge of being a really good team, and then we lay an egg.’
The Terriers (3-5-2, 0-1-0 America East) controlled the ball for most of the first half, but they failed to produce quality chances. Seven minutes into the game, freshman midfielder Michael Bustamante took an open shot from 25 yards out, but airmailed it well over the net.
Eight minutes later, sophomore midfielder Aaron O’Neal worked his way into the box from the left side and got a decent shot off, but senior goalkeeper Steward Ceus made a diving save to his right.
BU’s best chance came with 1:10 left in the first half when senior forward Jin Oh found junior midfielder Samuel Appiah inside the box. Appiah had an open shot from five yards out, but elected to pass to forward Stephen Knox. Appiah’s pass, however, eluded Knox.
‘We controlled [the ball], but we weren’t dangerous,’ Roberts said. ‘We didn’t really push them. We let them stay in front of us. We passed and we went side to side, but we wanted to try and go after them and we didn’t do that.’
Unlike the Terriers, the Great Danes (7-2-0, 1-0-0 AE), who have notched 23 tallies in nine matches, were able to capitalize on their first-half opportunities. With 7:30 left in the half, Johnson snuck behind the BU defense and beat senior goalie Hrafn Davidsson to a loose ball before burying the shot into the back of a virtually empty net.
‘Our defenders need to mark better,’ senior back and captain Dan Schultz said. ‘We can’t let people run off our backs and get one-on-one with our keeper. That just can’t happen. That’s a stupid mistake.’
Just two minutes later, sophomore midfielder Ian Peach collected a ball 30 yards out and rocketed a shot past Davidsson, who was slow to react, into the left side of the net.
‘I was moving my body to the left and the shot came to the right,’ Davidsson said. ‘You can always do something about goals, but that was a really good shot.’
Another defensive mistake four minutes into the second half all but crushed any hope for a Terrier comeback. A pass from the left side resulted in a scramble in the BU box. Even though the Terriers had three defenders in the vicinity of the ball, Johnson came away with the ball and sent a left-footed shot past a helpless Davidsson for his second score of the contest.
‘I don’t know if we lost the ball in the sun or what happened there,’ Roberts said. ‘I’m going to have to look at that again to see why that ball wasn’t cleared. [The goal] just seemed to come out of nothing.’
‘It’s mostly mental errors,’ Schultz said. ‘We need to stop giving away crappy goals.’
As the captain, Schultz took responsibility for some of the mistakes in the backfield.
‘I need to communicate better with the rest of the defenders. We need to work more as a unit and stop defending individually,’ he said.
Roberts lacked positives as well.
‘You’re playing at home. It’s your first conference game. You played some really good teams [earlier in the season], so there’s not a lot of positives right now that you can take out of it,’ Roberts said.