The long, torturous trek through a surprisingly deep America East Conference is finally over. Unfortunately for the Boston University men’s soccer team, so now is their season, thanks to a 2-1 loss to the University of Hartford in the first round of the conference tournament Saturday night at Al-Marzook Field.
Sophomore Stephen Knox scored first for the Terriers (3-4-0), his fifth goal of the now defunct 2009 season. Junior Aaron O’Neal assisted on the goal, finishing the best season of his career with 26 points on 11 goals and four assists.
Despite the early lead, the Terriers took the pressure off the Hawks (4-2-1) during the second half and paid the price ‘-‘- Hartford scored twice in the final 24 minutes to seal the victory and a trip to the conference semifinals, their first since 2003.
BU coach Neil Roberts chalked the loss up to sloppy play on both sides of the ball.’ ‘
‘It was a combination,’ Roberts said Sunday. ‘I think that [Saturday] night was pretty typical of how the last half of the season went. We had an excellent first half. We had the opportunity to make it 2-0 a couple of different times. [Hartford] didn’t have a successful goal chance in the first half.’
Considering the way the Terriers played in the last half of their season, the outcome of Saturday’s game is not surprising. This is not the first time BU has surrendered goals late in the game.’
The Terriers let up a 1-0 lead to the University of New Hampshire on Oct. 7, losing that game 2-1. This was just the start of their troubles ‘-‘- in the next three losses, the Terriers let up five second-half goals. One of those losses was a 3-1 dismantling by Hartford.
‘We just couldn’t dig ourselves out of it,’ Roberts said of his team’s inability to stop its opponents’ second-half surges.
Roberts explained the Terriers’ poor showing in the second half against the Hawks on Saturday, saying a lack of momentum on offense killed any chance for a second goal. Fouls were debilitating and ‘kept us pinned in our half’ of the field, Roberts said.’
‘In the second half, we somehow lost our way a little bit,’ Roberts said. ‘We didn’t create a lot of offense. We didn’t have a lot of possessions, and we committed a lot of fouls. And whenever we’re committing fouls, it’s not good for us.’
Despite that, things looked good for the Terriers early in last night’s game. Knox scored at 29:52 after the Hawks’ goaltender senior Nenad Cudic save O’Neal’s shot. The ball rolled away from Cudic, and Knox slammed it home to make the score 1-0.
The Terriers had two great opportunities to tack on an insurance goal, but came up short both times. BU sophomore Ben Berube had his shot blocked by Cudic in the 34th minute, and Cudic similarly denied sophomore Theo Terris at 60:52.
It was then that the game slipped away for BU. At 66:16, Hartford freshman James Stamopolous scored on a header, his first goal of the year. Senior Cedomir Tomcic netted the game-winner nine minutes later whit a shot from 15 yards out.
It was a disappointing end to what started out as a special season ‘-‘- the Terriers went 6-2-2 in non-conference play and were ranked as high as No. 15 in the nation before a disastrous four game losing streak in America East play.
‘It was half shock, half disappointment,’ Roberts said of the loss Saturday and the end of the season. ‘The effort that the kids played with was fantastic. They left everything out on the field.
‘They did everything they could to try and keep things going, but it just wasn’t enough.’
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