After slumping during the middle of the 2016-17 season, the Boston University men’s soccer team is back on track and has playoff soccer in its sights.
The Terriers, who knocked off the United States Naval Academy 1-0 Friday night, will now host Bucknell University this Tuesday. BU (8-6-2, 4-3-2 Patriot League) will be the playoff’s four seed, while the Bison are the five seed.
After a disappointing start to league play (1-3-2 through six games), BU needed a big surge to have a chance at playing in the postseason. The Terriers proceeded to go on a three-match conference winning streak to finish the season.
“We put ourselves in a big hole, and they dug themselves out so it’s good [to see] and hopefully by Tuesday we can just get a little bit better,” said BU head coach Neil Roberts.
Going into its matchup with the Midshipmen (5-9-4, 1-6-2 Patriot League), Roberts said he wasn’t worried about his team playing within itself.
“The guys were very calm [before the game] actually,” Roberts said. “I think the last two or three games there was a little bit more urgency and now I think they felt that, ‘OK now we know what to do and we think we can do it.’”
With that mindset, the Terriers maintained belief that their form would improve, their offense would find its rhythm and senior goalkeeper Matt Gilbert’s job would become simpler.
“I think we’re in a good mindset because we’re in a better spot than we were last year,” Roberts said. “The key is defending and not conceding goals. And only two shots [were allowed] tonight and we’re stopping [Navy] and not conceding goals. It’s a good thing for us.”
Like Roberts noted, the defense, led by Gilbert, was instrumental in its shutout of the Midshipmen.
“Obviously Gilbert has been a great story for us because he has developed so much as a goalkeeper,” Roberts said of the Madison, New Jersey native.
While BU’s defense has been stout lately, allowing one goal in its last six games, the offense could use a boost, as it has posted more than one goal just once during its recent winning stretch.
To remedy that performance, Roberts suggested junior midfielder Anthony Viteri could be due for a breakout performance.
“Anthony was struggling a little bit today,” he said. “Anthony wasn’t Anthony today. Everybody can have one of those days. Obviously when Anthony is on he’s as good as anybody, he’s one of the top players in the country when he’s on. But he just wasn’t on today.”
Viteri’s uncharacteristic night gave sophomore midfielder Nicki Wieners some extra minutes, and he made them count. The Munich native scored the game’s lone goal off a rebound minutes after replacing Viteri in the midfielder rotation.
Wieners first strike of the season — and second of his career — proved to be the difference in keeping the Terriers’ season alive.
“We were all really eager to win this game because if tied or lost this game it would’ve taken [our future] out of our hands, and so everyone was really focused and really motivated,” Wieners said.
One thing that the Terriers should be grateful for is they host the Bison (7-10-2, 4-4-1 Patriot League) on Tuesday, where they boast a 7-2 record at Nickerson Field.
However, BU’s seeding guarantees that the road to a Patriot League Championship title will have to mean two road wins, where its record is a lackluster 1-4-2 away from its home turf.
