Although the Boston University men’s soccer team did not experience dramatic turnover this year &- five seniors graduated last year and only a few freshmen have seen regular starts this year &- the path of the 2010 squad to the America East conference tournament has been completely different from that of the 2009 team.
Senior Day against the University at Albany on Saturday was the Terriers’ second consecutive four-goal game, their fifth shutout in the last six games and an overall dominant performance in which they outshot the Great Danes 22-6. With two goals from forwards &- senior Aaron O’Neal, who moved into 10th on the all-time list of goal-scorers at BU with his 27th career tally, and junior Ben Berube &- and two from midfielders &- senior Ben Havey and junior Michael Bustamante &- all the components of the Terrier offense appear to be coming together at the right time.
BU has not lost in regulation since Sept. 19 against Brown University, and in that period, it has outscored opponents by a margin of 22-4. Starting with a 2-1 win over Stony Brook University on Oct. 2, the Terriers earned themselves the breathing room down the stretch that they lacked last October.
“We were struggling last year, there was no doubt about it,” said BU coach Neil Roberts. “We were struggling as a team the whole last part of the season, so we never really had the confidence. We got in, we won some games at the end to get in, but it was never easy, it was never smooth and we never really got a rhythm going. The rhythm that we have now is good. We had no rhythm last year. We were just surviving.”
In 2009, the Terriers fought their way into the AE tournament as the sixth seed, carrying a 3-4 conference record. One-goal wins against Albany and University of Vermont, then the two worst teams in the conference, in their final two games propelled them into the tournament, where they were eliminated by the University of Hartford in the first round.
Despite the presence of the same players who lead BU in scoring this year &- O’Neal, Berube and Havey &- the 2009 team struggled offensively in AE play, only putting up multi-goal games in its last two contests against Albany and Vermont.
Roberts attributed some of the team’s success in that area this year to the improvement of junior midfielder Stephen Knox as a playmaker, and mentioned that BU’s ability to attack quickly has become an important part of the 2010 team’s identity.
With Wednesday’s win over Binghamton University, BU earned a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Saturday’s contest eliminated Albany from contention, and there is an outside chance the win could be a factor in whether or not BU gains an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. Above all, though, the fact that the team took the Great Danes out of the game early and finished with a decisive win should propel them into the postseason with a high morale.
“It’s obviously important,” O’Neal said of the team’s momentum. “The confidence is there, everyone’s playing pretty well, so it’s a lot better than trying to fight back from hard times.”
“It’s chalk and cheese,” Havey said of the difference between this year and last year at this time. “Last year we scraped in there, last-minute. Our season was done before the playoffs started. We were down on our luck, we felt sorry for ourselves but this team’s completely different. We’ve picked ourselves up after a tough loss, won back-to-back games four-nil, and I think we’ve shown our character.”
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