After a string of six games where the Boston University men’s soccer team played on the road, the team fell short in its home opener against No. 24 Brown University at Nickerson Field on Friday, falling 1–0 in overtime.
The Terriers faced off against five ranked opponents in the top 20 on their six game road trip, including then-No. 1 University of Connecticut and then-No. 1 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although the Terriers were to play at their home field for this game, it was unlikely be an easy matchup from the start, as evidenced Brown’s play early on in the season.
Coming into the game, Brown was fifth in the NCAA in goals allowed per game (.25) and goalkeeper Sam was 13th in the nation in save percentage (.889). That being said, the Terriers knew that with a vaunted defense ahead of them, one key play could make the difference in the game.
The Terriers’ defense had to step up, especially in the wake of a season-ending ACL injury to last year’s America East Defender of the year junior Kelvin Madzongwe. That meant the Terriers would look to freshman back Jeroen Blugh to step up as a top defender to thwart the Brown attack.
However, in the 11th minute of the game, injury struck. Blugh went down with what appeared to be a knee injury and he did not return to the game. After the injury it appeared the Terriers had to change their defense to adjust to the loss of Blugh, moving junior Derrick Mcaffrey from the midfield position to defense.
BU coach Neil Roberts said he was saddened by the loss of the freshman defender.
“Jeroen just settled in,” Roberts said. “He became a focal point of the defense. We went from three [defenders] to four in the back. We had to change things to protect some guys.”
Despite yet another key injury to the team’s defense, the Terriers held strong. In the first half, Brown was limited to only two shot attempts, both coming from forward Voltaire Escalona. One of those shots was blocked by the strong Terrier defense, while the other shot went wide of the goal.
Despite the change in strategy to put more defenders back to stop Brown, the Terriers actually were more aggressive than Brown offensively. The Terrier offense posted four shots in the first half, two of them on goal but both saved by Kernan-Schlosse.
The Terriers controlled the ball throughout most of the first half, but just could not connect on one good shot to push the tally across.
The second half saw Brown step up its offense, which tested the will of the newly aligned Terrier defense. The defense held strong, and sophomore goalkeeper Nick Thomson made his saves when he needed to. Perhaps the biggest save came in the 84th minute, when he made a sprawling save on midfielder Thomas McNamara after junior midfielder Fannar Arnarsson drew a foul near the box.
With both teams in a tight defensive struggle, where position at midfield was the key, the game became much more physical in the second half. With 21:45 remaining in the half, senior Max White appeared to be elbowed intentionally in the face by a Brown defender, but no foul was called. Again with 1:30 remaining, senior Michael Bustamante appeared to be hit with an elbow and fell to the turf.
Along with a no-call when BU junior attack Ali Sozeri took the ball deep into the box, it seemed there would be no calls going the Terriers’ way on the night.
“There were a lot of elbows. A broken nose. Who knows what’s up with Max’s jaw. It must have been the mosquitoes,” Roberts said sarcastically following the game. “There were no calls. The mosquitoes were hitting hard tonight.”
With the teams deadlocked at no score through regulation, the game went into overtime. With the teams both excelling on defense, it looked as if the game could come down to penalty kicks. However, only 40 seconds into the extra time, Brown scored the game-winning goal on a header by defender Tim Whalen, coming from a free-kick close to midfield. The Terriers looked to be in a state of disbelief that the game ended just in an instant.
Roberts seemed more disappointed in the outcome, rather than his team’s effort and performance on the field.
“The guys deserved better. [Brown] played more conservative than we did,” he said. “That’s why it’s disappointing.”
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