While the rain caused problems for nearly everyone involved in Wednesday night’s game between the Boston University men’s soccer team and the College of the Holy Cross, both junior forward Felix De Bona and freshman midfielder Magnus Benediktsson seemed unaffected, as they provided nearly all of the Terriers’ offense in the 2-1 victory.
The Crusaders (5-7-4, 2-3-2 Patriot League) came out fast Wednesday night. They punished the Terrier (11-4-1, 5-1-1 Patriot League) defense in the first 10 minutes, creating chances and keeping the Terriers out of Holy Cross’ half of the field. In the eighth minute, however, BU capitalized on its first major opportunity.
After jumping over and around multiple Crusader defenders, Benediktsson found sophomore midfielder David Amirani for a great look in the box. Amirani was promptly tripped. The resulting penalty kick gave the Terriers the early lead and gave De Bona his first of two first-half goals.
The Crusaders responded quickly, as the Terrier defense gave away a goal in the 11th minute to knot the contest at one. Holy Cross would continue to win second balls off poor Terrier possessions, and it looked as though the Terrier defense was going to continue the struggles it had against Lehigh University last Saturday.
While the Crusaders seemed to have the upper hand early Wednesday night, BU coach Neil Roberts admits that the first part of any game is hectic.
“No one really controls the beginning,” Roberts said. “ … It’s just people sorting each other out. We try to figure out what they’re going to do, they try to figure out what we’re going to do. It’s not really play yet.”
It wasn’t until the 29th minute that BU took full control of that energy. On an attempted clearance from the Crusaders, the 5-foot-6 Benediktsson sped up the middle, steamrolled into the Crusader back line and quickly found De Bona, who buried the chance easily.
“He’s doing well,” Roberts said of the Reykjavik, Iceland, native. “He set up that second goal really well and after that he was doing well. We’ve got to get him defending better, but he’s doing well.”
While Benediktsson wasn’t the only one struggling on defense early for BU, he did show some skill on the back line in the second half. In the 66th minute, Benediktsson tackled a Crusader player who was clear in the box, effectively shutting down Holy Cross’ best chance to equalize.
In his eighth start in a row, Benediktsson has been filling in on offense for a team that’s been struggling with injuries — most notably to sophomore midfielder Anthony Viteri — and has made the most of his chances. He leads the Terriers with six assists.
De Bona, on the other hand, has bounced back in his last two games, showing why he’s been such a valuable part of the Terrier attack for the second season in a row. De Bona started off 2015 hot. After that, though, he went stagnant, scoring only one goal in 11 games.
With a score against Lehigh (9-5-1, 3-3 Patriot League), and the two in the first half of this one, he’s shown resurgence. De Bona almost converted the hat trick when, in the 77th minute, he used some finesse footwork to dribble around four Crusader defenders and took a terrific shot from about 16 yards out, but goalkeeper Kevin Wright made an even better save.
While the Terriers have been without the likes of Amirani, Viteri and freshman defender Ben Valek for a few weeks, younger guys like Benediktsson and freshman midfielder T.J. Butzke have filled in the gaps admirably.
“We’ve got injuries and guys are coming back off injury,” Roberts said. “Amirani and Ben didn’t play a lot of minutes. Since Anthony has been out, T.J. and Magnus have played a lot of minutes. I’m just trying to get him some rest. It’s a cumulative thing and it’s going to catch up with them eventually if we don’t get them some breaks.”
With injured Terriers returning to action and players like Benediktsson and De Bona finding their stride on offense, this team is capable of making a deep run into the Patriot League Tournament.
