The Boston University men’s soccer team will play its second-to-last home game of the regular season against Binghamton University on Wednesday night.
The Terriers (9-4-1, 4-1-0 America East) had a six-game winning streak and a three-game shutout streak broken in a disappointing 2-1 overtime loss to University of New Hampshire on Saturday. They still lead the conference, with 12 points and two more conference wins than any other team, but have not yet clinched anything more than a berth in the six-team conference tournament.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” said BU coach Neil Roberts. “We haven’t won the conference. We haven’t secured home field. We haven’t done anything yet. This game is very big for us. Binghamton could come in first place. We could come in fourth place. There’s nothing that we can look past because nothing is secure.”
One thing the Terriers can say for sure is that the senior class has been an invaluable part of their success this season. Senior Aaron O’Neal is tied with junior forward Ben Berube for the team lead in goals with six, which also puts him in a tie for second in the conference in that category. He and Havey have both found themselves among the top-10 in AE in points as well, with 13 for O’Neal and 12 for Havey.
Saturday’s loss was a tough one, considering that UNH (6-3-5, 1-2-2 AE) had not yet won a conference match, but Roberts said the team should have no problem rebounding from its first defeat in more than a month.
“I think we’ll be fine,” Roberts said. “Practice has been good the last couple days. I think athletes deal with this all the time. This is why they’re athletes, and this is why they do what they do.”
Binghamton (4-5-4, 2-0-2 AE) also saw the end of a streak over the weekend. After an 0-4 start to the season, they went unbeaten over their next eight games, with a 4-0-4 record in that period before falling 2-1 in overtime to University at Albany on Saturday. They are part of a three-way tie with Stony Brook University and University of Maryland-Baltimore County for second place in the conference, with eight points.
BU and Binghamton both have one conference match remaining after Wednesday. The Terriers will face last-place Albany (1-3-1) and Binghamton will finish up its AE slate against UNH with both games coming up on Saturday.
Last year, the Bearcats saw their season end in the AE quarterfinals with a 2-1 loss to UMBC, their earliest finish to any year since 2002. The Terriers were eliminated the same day, Nov. 7, losing 2-1 to University of Hartford.
In their most recent AE championship win, BU defeated Binghamton 1-0 on Nov. 15, 2008. A handful of the Terriers who started that game &- O’Neal, Matthew Shea, Berube and junior midfielder Stephen Knox, among others &- will take the field again Wednesday, hoping to repeat that success and eliminate Binghamton’s chance to move ahead of them in the conference standings.
This article has been updated to take out any reference to Wednesday’s game as Senior Night. The BU seniors will be honored Saturday, not Wednesday.
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