In a weekend where the Boston University men’s soccer team would have been the third athletics story on campus, the Terriers escaped the madness of the Head of the Charles Regatta and the Parents Weekend hockey game in favor of a road match-up with University at Albany that resulted in a 2-1 win.
Possibly maintaining an extra sense of urgency while playing their third-to-last regular season game, the Terriers (8-7, 4-1 America East) did not waste much time trying to put the Great Danes (4-7-3, 0-2-3 America East) down.
Senior forward Ben Berube got BU off to a quick start when he found the net after a cross off the foot of fellow senior striker Stephen Knox from the right side in the 13th minute.
“Knoxy took on a couple people on the flank out wide and sent the ball across and Ben was there to put it in, so it was a good play by both of them,” said BU head coach Neil Roberts. “That was a big thing for us to get one [goal early on]. The game changes when you have the lead, especially when you’re on the road.”
The goal served not only as a boost for the team, but also as a bit of encouragement for Berube, who had played 12 games prior to Saturday without scoring a goal during his senior campaign. It is part of a much bigger season-long problem that has a plagued the team, which has scored 13 goals in its 15 games.
According to Roberts, the personal scoring drought had been bothering Berube.
“I’m sure he’s frustrated,” Roberts said of the athlete who led the Terriers with 21 points – eight goals and five assists – last year. “He’s used to scoring goals. He’s had chances though, so that’s a good thing. You have to think that as long as he keeps getting chances he’ll put the goals in.”
Albany rebounded later in the first half by taking advantage of BU defensive miscue on a play that was similar to the one that resulted in BU’s first goal. A Great Dane took it down the right side, beat a few Terrier defenders and crossed it into the 18-yard box, Roberts said. After multiple failed BU clearing attempts, Albany forward Brandon Wilson took a pass from midfielder Jeff Pierre and got it by the left side of freshman goalkeeper Nick Thomson.
The 30th-minute goal was just the 11th one Thomson has allowed in his 14 games this year, and went on to be the only defect of Thomson’s performance Saturday.
The second half ended much like the first half ended: without much action. The score remained knotted at one apiece until the 67th minute when freshman forward Dominique Badji made a play that re-tied him with Knox for the team lead in goals with four.
After a scramble in front of the net, Badji pounded home a loose ball by Albany goalkeeper Adrian Foncette for the unassisted and eventual game-winning goal.
With the lead, all that was left to do for the Terriers was to play a little defense, who did so by tapping into their inner Vince Lombardi, who once said “the best defense is a good offense.”
After Thomson made his second and final save of the day, this one on a shot from Albany midfielder Pomare Te Anau, BU maintained possession and took a series of three crucial corner kicks in the 85th and 86th minutes. Freshman midfielder Cameron Souri took all three, which were not as much a failed effort to extend the lead as it was an attempt to run out the clock.
“That was just wasting time,” Roberts said. “Hit the ball in the corner and start playing it off of them just to kill the game. We didn’t need another goal at that point, just to keep it at that end.”
In terms of conference standings, a game of equal significance happened in West Hartford, Conn. as University of Maryland-Baltimore County fell to University of Hartford 3-1. With the BU win and UMBC loss, the two are tied atop the America East standings.
The cautiously optimistic Roberts likes where his team stands, but knows nothing is a given with two games left to play.
“It’s a good place to be,” Roberts said.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
