The Boston University men’s soccer team is the Patriot League regular season champion once again.
Entering the final matchday before the PL Tournament, BU (4-3-10, 4-1-4 Patriot League) topped the PL table on 15 points, and secured a first-round bye in the tournament.
A first-place seeding for the Terriers required matching or bettering the performance of Bucknell University, and in the contest against the College of the Holy Cross, they put up a 1-1 result to make that case.
But first, the week began with junior Quin DeLaMater receiving a defender of the week award after he made a key block to save the Terriers’ 1-0 win last week at Navy. He scored the game-winning goal, but he was not dressed to compete against the Crusaders (4-9-5, 3-3-3 PL).
“This is a final, and that’s how we treated it,” head coach Kevin Nylen said. “I think that we left some out on the field tonight.”
Within the first two minutes, the Terriers also lost junior midfielder Diego Rived to an apparent injury, with freshman midfielder Markus Ramsey replacing him.
Ramsey ripped BU’s first shot on goal nearly 20 minutes after being subbed on, the chance being impressively saved by Crusader goalkeeper Tristan Stephani.
The Crusaders soon capitalized on a turnover to go up on forward Evan Jones’ seventh tally of the season.
In a necessary response, junior defender Ryan Lau’s third corner would be his best delivery of the night. The ball sailed to deflect off the inside of the far post, the underside of the crossbar and finally off classmate forward Alex Bonnington’s head to level the game seven minutes before the half.
“His deliveries before that hit the front post six guys, so I’m glad that he didn’t do that on that one,” Nylen joked. “But you know, he’s probably going to remember that one.”
That would be Bonnington’s first goal of the season after not starting in a game since the season opener, where the striker came off injured after 35 minutes.
Sixty-one minutes in, a counter attack for the Terriers off a Holy Cross corner fell short as freshman forward Dylan Williams missed just wide.
Soon after, Holy Cross’s Jones was coming down on graduate goalkeeper Andrew Wike with junior defender Aidan Kieffer trailing. What seemed almost certainly a second for the home team was neutralized as Wike made a big save with his left arm, one of five he had to make after halftime.
“Ethan Gill and Evan Jones up top are a handful and I think they carried that again tonight,” Nylen said. “Wike had to be called upon and made some big saves, so I tip my hat to him.”
Wike’s heroics helped the Terriers hold back the Crusaders for their 10th draw of the season, the most since their seven draws in 2022.
With this result and Bucknell’s draw against Loyola, the Terriers are officially the top-seeded team going into the Patriot League Tournament for the second season in a row.
BU will host the semifinal match at Nickerson Field next Tuesday against the lowest remaining seed after the quarterfinals between Lehigh and Colgate and Loyola and American.
“It’s nice to be able to know that you’re not going for another week, and so [we can] get our legs under us and then have some good training leading into next Tuesday,” Nylen said.
From next Tuesday on, the Terriers won’t just be treating each game like a knockout –– that will be the reality –– but as the No. 1 seed. On Nov. 12, the Terriers will be playing at home, where they are undefeated in-conference this year.
