Sitting in second place in the Patriot League for the first time all season, the Boston University men’s soccer team will wrap up its regular season schedule Friday when it heads down to Annapolis, Maryland, to face the United States Naval Academy.
While the Terriers (11-4-2, 5-1-2 Patriot League) have already clinched a conference tournament berth, a victory over Navy (8-8-1, 4-4 Patriot League) could potentially dethrone first-place Colgate University. The Raiders (9-6-2, 6-2 Patriot League) sit atop the league, and a victory on Friday would hand BU home-field advantage and a first round bye in the postseason.
Navy has broken even against league opponents this season, but it’s lost three of its last four tilts. Should the Terriers bring down the Midshipmen, Colgate will need a win against ninth-place Lafayette College on Saturday to hold on to its one-point lead over the Terriers.
BU coach Neil Roberts admitted it’s not easy to play Navy on the road.
“It’s a tough place to play,” Roberts said. “ … They’re a good team [and] they move the ball well, so it’s just a matter of who executes the best and who gets chances, because they create chances.”
Paving the way for the Terriers as they head down to Maryland is junior forward Felix De Bona. De Bona was named the MVP of the Terriers’ first battle for the Turnpike Trophy with the College of the Holy Cross on Oct. 28. He was also recently named the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season.
In the Terriers’ first conference loss to Lehigh University, De Bona scored the equalizer that sent the match into overtime. Against the Crusaders (5-8-4, 2-4-2 Patriot League), De Bona had the first multi-goal showing of his career. Three days later, he scored the only goal in BU’s match against the United States Military Academy. He now leads the team in both goals (eight) and points (18).
“I’m happy for him,” Roberts said. “ … He’s scoring goals, but he’s doing a lot more for us. He’s defending, he’s controlling the ball for us, he’s getting people involved in the attack, he’s creating space. He’s played really well.”
In addition to Player of the Week honors, De Bona was named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week. Despite a relatively slow middle of the season, De Bona has chosen a very opportune time to heat up again.
After coming in off of the bench in his last four games, sophomore forward Danny Foen earned his first career start against West Point (5-6-5, 3-2-3 Patriot League) Saturday. In the 26th minute of that game, Foen collected the pass from freshman forward T.J. Butzke and sent a cross into the box, which De Bona headed in for the score.
The assist was his first as a Terrier and has brought him into a tie with Butzke and junior forward Mark Wadid for fourth on the team in points. Roberts has been impressed with what the second-year Terrier has done recently.
“Danny’s just a guy that can go at you,” he said. “We’ve been saying all year that we need our flank people to create and Danny’s been doing that. We get our flank people isolated one-on-one a lot so it’s up to them to be able to beat them and then get good services into the box, and Danny’s been doing that.”
