Tightrope passes for goals inside the 18-foot box and losses have been mutually exclusive for the Boston University men’s soccer team through five games. The Terriers have scored just once from inside the box this season, but their knack for finding passing lanes inside has rendered their lack of marksmanship moot.
In the upset over St. John’s University, BU’s lone goal scored on a play spurred by junior forward Aaron O’Neil’s awareness and patience inside the box. With just one man to beat 10 feet from the 18-foot box, O’Neil held up-drawing defenders off BU forwards on the left and right-and finally dished to a suddenly open Stephen Knox, just steps from the goalie box.
To pull the trigger too early would have wasted a valuable opportunity in a game that only yielded one goal from both teams combined.
The Terriers learned this lesson the hard way in another one-goal game against pre-season All-American Andre Akpan and Harvard University last Friday-this one they lost 1-0.
Sophomore midfielder Ben Berube led the Terriers that day with five shots on goal. Each of his off-balance attempts came from the far left-side, outside of or barely fringing upon the penalty box. His misfires weren’t helped by a steady drizzle, which coated the ball-not to mention his cleats-with a mixture of mud and grass. Akpan, who led Harvard with seven shots and scored the game-winner, fired six of them from a centralized locale 10 to 20 feet from the goal.
More importantly, each try came in the second half with BU trailing by a goal-a time when each chance should be treated with the greatest care.
Granted, Berube’s itchy trigger foot has occasionally brought on positive results. His goal from 25-feet out helped the then-No. 24 Terriers beat the then-No. 12 University of Connecticut on Sept. 5. But the goal took an awkward deflection off a defender and found the far-corner. Still, similar tries have seldom worked out for BU.
In the 3-0 win over Providence College, Berube showed that the offense achieves its full productive capacity when the midfielders settle into a role of feeding forwards. He tallied two assists on entrance passes from the left fringe. Another midfielder, sophomore Michael Bustamente, added two more from the right.
O’Neil was a recipient of two of those feeds. On Sunday, he played the facilitator.
If O’Neil doesn’t handle his 34th minute chance with equal acumen, the Terriers are forced to the same turn of the cards tact that bore overzealous offensive sets in the loss to Harvard.
UMBC off to hot start
The University of Maryland-Baltimore County beat Mount St. Mary’s College and St. Francis University to extend its record to 5-0-0-the school’s best start since 1999. The 1999 team finished the season undefeated at 19-0-2 before losing to Duke University in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Sophomore forward Andrew Bulls has made another NCAA Tournament look like a real possibility for a Retrievers team picked to finish last in America East by the conference website. Bulls earned his second straight America East Player of the Week after pushing his league-leading goal total to eight. He didn’t score more than eight goals all of last year.
Speaking of undefeated regular seasons, BU’s victory over St. John’s was its first win over a No. 1 ranked team since beating ex-USA National Team Coach Bruce Arena’s University of Virginia team in 1994. That year, the Terriers went 18-0-1 before losing to Brown University in the second round of the tourney.
Catamount’s Edler takes home AE Rookie of the Week
University of Vermont freshman forward D.J. Edler won America East Rookie of the Week after scoring a goal each against the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Portland University.
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