The Boston University men’s soccer team fell to Lafayette College 2-3 Saturday. This was the Terriers’ home opener and second game of the season.
“The guys are disappointed to drop anytime you’re playing at home,” head coach Kevin Nylen said in a press conference Saturday. “I think it’s a really good learning experience for us as a group here in the early parts of the season.”
The Terriers got out to an early lead on the back of freshman midfielder Andrew Rent’s goal, just more than 20 minutes into the first. Rent was assisted by sophomore forward Ronaldo Marshall, and the score was the freshman’s first as a Terrier.
The Leopards were able to bounce back later in the first, with two goals in the span of five minutes by sophomore forward Hale Lombard and sophomore midfielder David Mizrahi. The Leopards took the one-goal lead into the half.
In the first half, Terriers freshman goalkeeper Andrew Wike made three saves in his first start at BU, while Leopards junior goalkeeper Alex Sutton made two saves.
“It was a tough one to give up, for sure, and to go into [the] half,” Nylen said. “It didn’t really phase [the team] … I’m comfortable with our performance in the second half.”
With a goal around 15 minutes into the second half, Marshall caught a touch pass from freshman midfielder Eitan Rosen. Marshall’s shot snuck past Sutton to even out the scoreboard, tying the game at two goals apiece.
Yet, Leopards freshman midfielder Carter Houlihan was able to get a goal late in the second half. The game-winning score came in the 89th minute — Wike came out to make the save, but Houlihan was able to bury the ball in the back of the net.
Wike allowed three goals, while making four saves during the match. In the Terriers’ season opener against Colgate University March 13, Wike was subbed in as a goalkeeper in the second half. Saturday’s loss to Lafayette was his first full game as a Terrier.
“Just because you give up three goals doesn’t mean a goalkeeper had a poor performance,” Nylen said. “It was good for [Wike] to get 90 minutes tonight after a good performance at Colgate and to keep pushing forward.”
This was Nylen’s second game coaching the Terriers and his first loss. Overall, Nylen said he was happy with his team’s performance Saturday evening.
“I can only speak about us, but we were the better soccer team tonight by far,” Nylen said.
The team was on a hiatus, as they were scheduled to face the College of the Holy Cross March 21 at Nickerson Field, but the match was canceled.
However, Nylen said he felt this pause hasn’t impacted their play.
“We’ve been off,” Nylen said. “That’s not an excuse, it’s just the reality of where we’re at right now. We had probably a little less time to prepare, but that’s not why we lost.”
The Terriers will travel to Worcester, Massachusetts to face the Holy Cross Crusaders Thursday at 6 p.m. This will be the Terriers’ second to last game in the regular season as it currently stands.
