Four straight losses and two straight shutouts brought the Boston University men’s soccer team into Tuesday night against Holy Cross.
A win against the last-place Crusaders (4-8-6, 1-5-3 Patriot League) could place the then-sixth place Terriers (9-7, 5-4 PL) anywhere from the No. 3 to No. 6 tournament seed. A draw limited the possibilities to No. 4 through No. 6, and loss would make a No. 6 finish certain.
Luckily, the Terriers did enough: They came from behind to defeat Holy Cross 2-1 — and did everything they could to improve their position.
Meanwhile, Army won their contest against Colgate, securing third place. The two other determinant conference games fell favorably for BU: Both Lafayette and Bucknell tied with their opponents, giving the Terriers No. 4 seed and hosting rights for Saturday’s quarterfinal.
“We knew we had to get three points to even talk about having a home game,” Head Coach Kevin Nylen said. “It worked out. [It’s] big to give ourselves an opportunity to play again at home on Saturday.”
The Terriers looked in contention to pull the win off from the start. In the seventh minute, junior forward Andrea Di Blasio recorded the first shot of the game, challenging Crusader goalkeeper John Smith with a low strike.
Through the rest of the half, BU frequently got in attacking positions and found near-chances, but didn’t get any more recorded shots until after the half-hour mark. By then, though, the Terriers had fallen behind 0-1 following a combination play from Crusader forwards Archie Hatcher and Liam Heneghan.
With three minutes before the halftime whistle, Di Blasio won and eventually stood over BU’s first penalty kick opportunity of the season — their first since a converted chance against Colgate last season.
Di Blasio took a few powerful steps and sent the ball sharply to the lower right corner, as Smith dove the opposite direction, pulling BU back into it right before the break.
“He’s taken them before,” Nylen said of Di Blasio at the penalty spot. “He’s trained PKs, [and] you always want a guy who’s confident and wants to take it, so he stepped up and took it well.”
The momentum did continue into the second half, with BU getting a pair of shots in the 50th and 51st. Senior forward Alex Bonnington attempted the latter shot and missed just wide before catching the crossbar in the 55th.
Holy Cross hadn’t gone silent though, as senior goalkeeper Sheraz Saadat found himself busy in the box around the 60th minute. However, as had been true the entire game, Saadat held strong.
After a stoppage due to a Crusader injury, BU reset on the edge of their attacking third and progressed the ball into the box where Bonnington got another shot off.
Smith saved the attempt, but the subsequent deflection fell for senior midfielder — and one-time Crusader — Ethan Gill for the go-ahead goal against his former team. Gill didn’t abstain from celebration either, as his goal put BU that much closer to a higher seed.
As Holy Cross was kept shotless through the end of the game, BU snapped its woeful late-season losing streak. The Terriers earned a four seed and hosting rights in the PL quarterfinal against Bucknell, set for 1 p.m. Saturday.
“Four games [dropped] in a row is never ideal for any team,” Gill said. “We knew, coming into this game, this was more about ourselves than anything. We put in the work every day, and it just feels really good to be on the good side of things again. We had to earn it tonight, [and] hopefully we can carry this momentum going into the postseason.”