The Boston University men’s soccer team opened up Patriot League play with a 1-1 draw against Bucknell University at Emmitt Field in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The Terriers (3-2-1, 0-0-1 Patriot League), who were seeking their first road victory of the season, were led by strong performances from junior midfielder Anthony Viteri and senior goalkeeper Matt Gilbert.
BU was outplayed in the first half by the Bison (2-5-2, 0-0-1 Patriot League), but the two upperclassmen, highlighted by Gilbert’s career-high 10 saves, were able to prevent a loss and help earn the team its first point of the Patriot League campaign.
The Bison missed out on two early scoring chances, as the ball narrowly missed the inside of the net in the 24th and 29th minutes. Despite Bucknell outshooting the Terriers 8-1 in the first half, the Terriers were able to escape the half with the score knotted at zero.
BU head coach Neil Roberts acknowledged the balanced attack of the Bison through the first 45 minutes of the contest.
“It was a little disappointing,” Roberts said. “Bucknell played really well in the first half. They pressured us, they defended well. You have to give credit to them for that.”
The second half and subsequent overtime periods saw a similar aggressiveness from the Bison. The constant pressure they put on BU throughout finally paid off in the 47th minute.
Bison junior Dan Bank sent in a corner kick to midfielder Patrick Mahoney, whose header got by Gilbert to give the home team the early advantage.
The Terriers nearly went down 2-0 in the 65th minute, but Gilbert again came through with a breakaway save.
It wasn’t until that first Bucknell goal that Roberts felt his team played their best brand of soccer.
“We let the first 15 minutes kind of slip away from us, but once we went down we kind of took over the game and traded some nice chances,” Roberts said. “It was just unfortunate that we weren’t on the beginning of the game.”
Minutes after Gilbert’s key stop, Viteri, who has been one of the best players in Division I soccer this season, maneuvered around defenders and netted a goal from a few feet outside the penalty box to even the score at one.
The goal was the Flushing, New York native’s team-leading fifth of the season. Viteri’s 1.83 points per game leads the conference.
“They marked Anthony very tight,” Roberts said. “That made it real difficult for him, but he was patient, he kept fighting. Once they finally got him some space, he finished well.”
For the game, Bucknell outshot BU 24-18 and also put up 11 shots on goal to the Terriers’ eight.
However, Roberts doesn’t believe that the shot category was completely characteristic of how the game went for his team.
“A lot their shots weren’t really dangerous shots,” Roberts said. “They only had a couple of really dangerous chances, and I thought Matt did well with that.”
It was a hard-fought game from both sides, and the Bison are usually a tough matchup for BU. All five meetings between the two Patriot League foes have gone into extra time.
When his team plays Harvard University on Tuesday night, Roberts hopes that it will have a higher sense of urgency.
“Hopefully we have urgency from the beginning,” Roberts said. “They know how difficult these points are to get. We have to really have to play well for the full 90 minutes to get as many points as we can.”
