Heading into this week’s slate of games, the Boston University women’s soccer team was looking to end its offensive woes as it insentered the America East portion of its schedule.
The Terriers did so in a big way, exploding six goals in two games against North Carolina State and the University at Albany.
The Terriers (5–-5–-1, 1–-0 America East) traveled to Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday to take on the NC State Wolfpack (5–-6) in their final non-conference matchup. The game began slowly with no goals coming in the first half.
Just five minutes into the second half, a foul in the box allowedgave junior midfielder Megan McGoldrick a penalty kick, which she stuffed in the back of the net. McGoildrick’s goal gave the Terriers the lead and ended their three-game scoring drought.
Later in the match, the Wolfpack evened the score with a goal off of a loose ball from junior Jennie Krauser.
The Terriers, however, were once again on the attack when with sophomore back Kai Miller crossed the ball into the box and found fellow sophomore Ana Cuffia, who logged her second goal of the season.
The Terriers spent a lot of time on the NC State side of the field, with a shot differential of 16–8 with 11 of those shots coming in the second half.
The final goal of the match came late from junior forward Madison Clemens.
The goal put her in a tie for the team-high of three.
Entering Sunday’s game against Albany (3–7–1, 0–1 America East), the Terriers were looking to take advantage of their momentum to earn their first victory against an America East opponent.
The Terriers came out, once again, victorious by a final score of 3–1.
The game mirrored the team’s previous game at NC State with the Terriers once again keeping the ball on their Great Danes’ side of the field for the better part of the game.
The Terriers also dominated the shot category, out-shooting Albany 18–1, with the lone shot resulting in Albany’s one goal.
Albany, nevertheless, struck first with a breakaway goal from senior Chelsea DeVerna.
“It was uncomfortable there when we got scored on, but … we showed steadiness,” said BU coach Nancy Feldman on the goal.
As a result of consistent offensive harassment, the Terriers were awarded nine corner kicks in the first half, compared to six total in the game prior.
They were unable, however, to generate a goal from these corner kicks, but still found offense in other places.
Coming off of the bench, senior forward Brea Hewitt made an immediate contribution.
With her first touch on the right side of the pitch, she beat her defender to the inside and fired a rocket past the goalkeeper for her third goal of the season and the game’s equalizer.
“I knew that when I was coming in, we were down 1–0, and I just wanted to be a spark,” Hewitt said.
The Terriers took the field in the second half with the same sense of urgency with which they started the match.
Nine minutes into the second half, sophomore forward Dara DeMatteo found the net for her first goal of her career, which would also serve as the deciding goal in the match.
“It was huge, I’ve always wanted to be a contributor on this team and it feels good,” Dematteo said about her goal.
DeMatteo had been seeing limited action prior to this game, but due to her work ethic and persistence, she was inserted into the rotation,
“She’s practiced her way into the lineup … in the last few days since we got back from NC State, she’s out-practiced other players,” Feldman said.
As the game began to wind down with the Terriers in control, junior midfielder Emma Clark connected with Cuffia for an insurance goal, giving Cuffia her third goal of the season and putting her in the three-way tie for the team lead of three goals with Hewitt and Clemens.
The win kept a streak alive for the Terriers, as BU has still never lost to Albany at women’s soccer.
Since the team’s began playing against each other in 1999, BU has defeated Albany in each of the teams’ 14 matchups.
Among these wins was a Terrier victory over the Great Danes in the America East championship game last season.
BU shut out Albany 2–0 en route to an NCAA tournament berth.
The two wins will help the Terriers on their quest for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, as the team is ineligible to compete in the America East tournament this season.
“It’s one in the books for us out of the eight conference games that we have, and each one for us is our tournament,” Feldman said.
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