No momentum Retrieved

In a game that could determine who makes it to the America East Tournament and who is left home, the Boston University men’s soccer team fell, 2-1, Wednesday night at Nickerson Field to University of Maryland-Baltimore County, extending the Terriers losing streak to a season-worst four games.

All of those losses have come against America East opponents, leaving BU (7-6-2, 1-4-0 AE), the America East champions from a year ago, at a lowly seventh place in the conference. UMBC (11-3-0, 2-2-0 AE) currently sits fourth after their win. Only the top six teams are eligible for the conference tournament at the end of the season.

After a rather mundane first half, the Terriers appeared to have changed their luck 25 minutes into the second half.

Junior forward Aaron O’Neal, the stalwart on offensive for the Terriers all season, took a pass from junior back Matthew Shea into the 18-yard box and, just before reaching the six-yard box, nailed a goal past UMBC freshman goalie Phil Saunders. That go-ahead goal was O’Neal’s 10th on the season, four more than his previous career high, which he set his freshman year.

It did not take the Retrievers long to answer, however ‘-‘- 30 seconds, to be exact.

Before anyone in the stands or on the field seemingly had the slightest opportunity to comprehend O’Neal’s score, UMBC junior forward Levi Houapeu streaked up the left side of the pitch, evading the BU defense in the process. The defense appeared to have Houapeu stopped when he created just enough space to fire a shot from within the 18 that eluded BU senior goalie Hrafn Davidsson and found the back of the net to knot the game up at one apiece.

UMBC took advantage of its newfound momentum four minutes later thanks again to sloppy defense by the Terriers. Houapeu controlled the ball just above the 18, lulling the defenders to sleep just enough to allow junior midfielder Dustin Dzwonkowski to slice through the middle of the pitch unchecked. Houapeu then dumped the ball off to the open Dzwonkowski, who slammed an absolute rocket from about 20 yards out into the top left corner to give the Retrievers the 2-1 lead that they would hold onto until the final whistle.

BU coach Neil Roberts chalked up the UMBC goals to a lack of BU defenders getting between the Retriever forwards and the net.

‘We have the guys stopped, but we let them turn and shoot too easily,’ Roberts said. ‘It’s elementary. There’s no sense being there if you’re not going to stop him from shooting. If you do those things [correctly], you don’t have those problems.’

The Terriers certainly had plenty of their own opportunities to put shots of their own on net.

In the first half, sophomore midfielder Michael Bustamante received a corner from senior midfielder Samuel Appiah at the top of the box with a perfect angle at the net. He fired a shot that went past all UMBC defenders, including Saunders in net, and even tickled the twine of the net. But alas, the shot hit the outside of the net rather than the inside, and the score remained tied at 0-0.’

Flash-forward to desperation time with just over one minute left on the Nickerson clock. With everyone in the box for BU, including Davidsson up from the opposite end of the field, Bustamante placed a corner kick at the top of the box amongst the sea of blue and white jerseys. Senior midfielder Richy Dorman got a foot on a shot that was blocked, and O’Neal sent a shot on the rebound that went just wide to end any threat of a BU comeback.

Now with only two conference games left, BU stands in the toughest of positions. To even have a hope of making the conference tournament, the Terriers will have to beat both the University of Vermont and the University at Albany on the road and then rely on the play of other America East teams to hopefully steal one of the last coveted spots, a fact not lost on Roberts in his post-game analysis.

‘We have to wait and see where we’re at and what our chances are,’ Roberts said. ‘Hopefully, we’ll still get a shot, but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.’