The Boston University men’s soccer team took on Colgate University (2-5-4, 1-2-1 PL) in an interconference matchup this Saturday at Nickerson field. After what was a hard fought battle by two teams that are struggling this season, the Terriers (1-9-1, 1-3-0 PL) came away with their first win of the year in an overtime thriller.
The game was sealed in the first overtime by a golden goal scored by Boston University senior Satchel Cortet who headed the ball past the goalkeeper in the 98th minute. The goal off of a free kick from Jorge Lopez Lacu put the Terriers up 2-1 in an emphatic fashion and ended what was a long, tiring game.
The win was certainly a morale booster for the Terriers.
It was a sentiment captured by Cortet who said “Words really can’t describe it. It’s like the best feeling in the world.”
BU came out and attacked with purpose to begin the first half. After several quality attempts at scoring within the first few minutes of the game, they broke through the goalkeeper in the 7th minute. Senior Matt McDonnell squeezed his shot past Colgate goalkeeper Michael Stone for his fifth of the season and the first of the night.
The rest of the half was relatively quiet, with open shots as a rarity. The Terriers led through the first 45 minutes 1-0 and also finished with four shots to the Raiders’ two.
The intensity started to pick up in the second half along with the physicality. A total of six yellow cards were handed out in the duration of the game, with five of those coming in the second half. Colgate’s Edward Bass was ejected in the 76th minute. The game was ill-tempered with a total of 38 fouls, 25 on BU and the remaining 13 on the Raiders, sending many players to the benches due to injury.
BU head coach Neil Roberts noted the aggressive nature of the game.
“We had so many young kids out there because Elias went down and then Josh went down and somebody else went down, so we had like six guys out.”
In the 68th minute, a foul in the box resulted in a penalty for BU, but McDonnell’s shot to the right was well saved. The miss was a turning point for the Raiders, who increased their aggression by a notch and found an equalizer in the 73rd minute.
A cross from Colgate’s Kentaro Morrison led to a goal from Edward Bass, who put it in the back of the net for the second time this season.
Coach Roberts was proud of his team’s ability to keep the energy up and stay in the game and force it into overtime before eventually grabbing the first win of the season. “[The biggest] strength is the willingness just to keep fighting, you know.” Roberts said. “When they tied the game up we could’ve put our heads down but they just kept going.”
Next up for BU is an away game at American University (1-7,2-1,2-1 PL), where they will play in another Patriot League matchup. The Terriers are looking to tack on another win and gain some momentum in the second half of the season.
“We just go game by game.” Roberts said. “Get a little bit of time off, and just get ready now for American.”
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