Fresh off its first win of the season over Boston College, the Boston University men’s soccer team dropped two games this weekend, falling to 1–3 on the season and continuing a trend of mediocre offense against ranked opponents.
The Terriers, who came into the weekend having only scored one goal in two games, first faced off against No. 15 Wake Forest University on Friday.
The Demon Deacons (3–0) started the scoring after junior Luca Gimenez sent a pass over to classmate Chris Duvall. Duvall then slipped the shot by BU sophomore goaltender Nick Thomson for the early lead.
BU evened up the score 19 minutes later when freshman defender Mac McGuire and junior midfielder Derek McCaffrey assisted red shirt freshman defender Parker Powell in scoring what would become the Terriers’ lone tally of the game.
It was the first goal of Powell’s collegiate career.
After holding Wake Forest for the rest of the half, Thomson and the Terriers were unable to stop freshman Michael Gamble, who scored the game-winning goal, and eventually an insurance tally to give the Demon Deacons the 3–1 win.
Gamble’s first goal was on a misplay by Thomson. Senior Andy Lubahn passed the ball over to Gamble who took advantage of the wide open net in the 57th minute of play, netting his first goal.
“It was just disappointing that we gave up a really bad goal probably 15 minutes into the second half which against any team you can’t do, but especially not Wake Forest,” Roberts said.
With about 10 minutes left in the game, Gamble extended the lead on another open-net goal. This time senior Luciano Delbono passed a through ball to sophomore Sean Okoli, pulling Thomson out of the net, before Okoli sent the ball over to Gamble.
The Terriers also suffered another loss against Wake Forest, as junior defender Kelvin Madzongwe injured his knee in the 13th minute on Friday. Roberts said last year’s America East Defensive Player of the Year will likely miss “a significant amount of time.”
“I would have to say Kelvin getting hurt was the most disappointing part of [the weekend],” Roberts said.
In a tighter battle on Sunday, the Terriers took on No. 1 University of North Carolina (4–0–1). Like the Demon Deacons, the Tarheels took the initial lead when sophomore Verneri Valimaa sent a long pass to junior Andy Craven in the 20th minute of play. Craven then chipped the ball over Thomson’s head to put the Tarheels on the scoreboard.
The Tarheels extended their lead in the 68th minute of play on a penalty kick after BU freshman defender Jeroen Blugh received a yellow card for tackling from behind.
Down by two, the Terriers continued to put pressure on the Tarheels.
The task eventually paid off in the 84th minute of play when senior midfielder Michael Bustamante passed the ball to last season’s America East Rookie of the Year sophomore forward Dominique Badji, who headed the ball into the net for his first goal of the season.
It was the first time a team had scored on the Tarheels this season.
Despite several efforts, the Terriers could not put another shot on goal during the game and ultimately fell by a final score of 2–1.
The offense still has not found a go-to scorer this year, something that Roberts does not see happening with this team. Instead, he said the team will have a lot of balanced scoring throughout its forwards and midfielders.
“We’ve just got to keep plugging away and keep creating chances, and we think goals will come,” Roberts said. “It doesn’t matter who scores, and I don’t think we are going to have a goal-scorer that is going to get a lot of goals for us this year, but you know if we can be solid defensively and create good chances … we’ve just got to keep doing that.”
The Terriers schedule is not getting any easier, as it is scheduled to continue its road trip against Providence College and No. 4 University of Connecticut over the upcoming weekend.
However, the challenge of the early-season non-conference schedule is something Roberts thinks can only have helped the team.
“The only thing [the tough schedule] can do, especially in the situation we are in this year, is help us,” Roberts said. “The strength of schedule will be real good. We would have liked to get a tie out of one of the three games against St. John’s, Wake and North Carolina. We have put ourselves in position in the last two games to pull that off, we just didn’t do it.”
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