In front of a crowd of 2,781 in Baltimore on Friday, the Boston University men’s soccer team defeated the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, 2-0, for its sixth straight victory.
The game, which was televised nationally on the Fox Soccer Channel, was the Terriers’ (9-3-1, 4-0-0 America East) third straight shutout.
“Obviously Fox was part of it, but it was more that it was a conference game and we wanted to get the points on the road, which was very important,” BU coach Neil Roberts said. “It was way more important to get the points in the conference.”
Though junior forward Ben Berube’s five-game scoring streak was snapped, the midfield, led by seniors Ben Havey and Ryan Shea, stepped up to provide the necessary offense in a win that could prove to be a significant milestone in BU’s season.
Havey, who ranks third among the Terriers in points with 12 (four goals, four assists), controlled a rebound on a shot by junior forward Stephen Knox and sent it past UMBC (6-4-2, 1-1-2) goalkeeper Dan Louisignau from 14 yards out. The goal, the eventual game-winner, came 35 minutes into the first half on BU’s third shot on goal of the game.
Less than three minutes into the second half, Havey found Shea with a lead pass, and Shea beat Louisignau with a shot that fell just inside the right post for his second goal of the year.
Over the last two weeks, Berube, Knox and senior forward Aaron O’Neal had been the offensive catalysts for the Terriers. The contributions of Shea and Havey were an encouraging sign for an offense that, while effective, had gotten just one goal from a midfielder &- Havey’s tally against Harvard University on Oct. 9 &- in the last six games.
“We talked about that in practice, that we needed goals from every area,” Roberts said. “We can’t just depend on two people to get all of the goals, so that was good to see.”
After a rough stretch in September when the Terriers allowed eight goals in three games, they have given up just two in their last six. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Brandon Briggs has recorded six shutouts and ranks second in the conference with a 1.00 goals-against average. Briggs has been capable, but he was only forced to make two saves on Friday as the defenders in front of him continued to improve at keeping the ball out of the box.
“If you look back at it, we just struggled for a week and gave up eight goals in seven days against some good teams,” Roberts said. “Defensively we kind of had a bad week, and some of that was due to poor play, some of it was just due to fatigue from playing a lot of soccer in a short period. I think collectively we’re defending better, from the midfielders to the backs, and Brandon’s not making mistakes.”
UMBC boasts the top scorer in the conference, forward Levi Houapeu, who has nine goals and three assists for 21 points and a 1.91 points-per-game average. On Friday, Houapeu did not manage to put a single shot on net. Forward Pete Caringi, who ranks third in AE &- behind Houapeu and Berube &- with 1.27 points per game, took one shot on goal but could not put the Retrievers on the board.
With three games left to play, the Terriers are in first place in AE, four points ahead of second-place Binghamton University. Two of their three remaining games are against the University of New Hampshire and the University at Albany, neither of which has won a conference match yet this season.
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