The Boston University men’s soccer team headed west to take on the University of Massachusetts Amherst Sunday afternoon, starting a two-game road trip.
Despite some pressure from a struggling UMass (0-6) team, a two-goal day for sophomore midfielder Anthony Viteri led the Terriers (3-1) to a 2-1 victory.
Coming into the match, BU was riding the momentum from its first shutout of the season — a 1-0 victory over Siena College.
The Minutemen, on the other hand, had been struggling before their clash with the Terriers. After being shut out in their first three games, they finally scored in their fourth game against Central Connecticut State University, a contest they lost by four goals.
Not only had UMass been struggling greatly this season, but it was also winless against the Terriers in the teams’ last four meetings coming into Sunday.
The first half contained all the highlights for both teams. It took the Terriers less than 10 minutes to score a goal when sophomore midfielder Anthony Viteri buried a 25-yard shot off a feed from freshman midfielder Adam Wright, giving them the early edge.
Following the initial goal, BU kept the ball on the Minutemen’s side of the field, taking a multitude of shots to no avail. Despite its lackluster defensive performance, UMass put away its second tally of the season in the 30th minute. Midfielder Ty Goncalves tapped in a centering pass from forward Alex DeSantis, evening the score at one apiece. BU coach Neil Roberts said he was not pleased with his defense’s positioning on the Minutemen’s only goal of the afternoon.
“[On] the goal, we kind of left our midfield open,” Roberts said. “We had an opportunity to win a second ball and we didn’t, they won it. They exposed us. They finished the ball, credit to them. UMass played well. UMass put a lot of energy into the game. It was a very good game. They really made things difficult for us.”
Towards the end of the first 45, Viteri found twine again, registering his third goal of the season on a cross from the right side off the boot of senior forward Lucas McBride. The 39th-minute score tied Viteri with junior forward Felix De Bona for the team-lead in goals. While Roberts admitted that it is nice to see someone on the offense not named De Bona find the net, he still believes there is work to be done.
“Anthony’s been involved in a lot of our attack from our beginning,” Roberts said of Viteri. “So we actually have to get more people involved than Anthony and Felix. But Anthony played well today … So the goals were good but we have to get more support. It’ll come.”
The Terriers went into the locker room at halftime with a 2-1 lead in tow.
In the second half, the Minutemen put heavy pressure on the Terriers. They struck quickly, letting off four shots within the first 10 minutes of the period, yet only one went on net. Neither team would end up finding the net again, but the Terriers would not need it. Junior goalkeeper Matt Gilbert and the defense shut down the Minutemen offense, playing as well as they have all season. Although Roberts said he believes that his team can improve, he said the Terriers played well against a UMass team that gave it everything they had.
“We fought hard,” Roberts said. “The guys fought extremely hard. They challenged, they dug in. We were very competitive. It just wasn’t smooth for us. The work ethic was extremely good, that was good too see. Now we have to be able to get that work ethic, some better possession and some better passing as well.”
