A lineup change in the middle of a three-game winning streak is not something done too often unless there is an injury. But Boston University women’s soccer coach Nancy Feldman made the decision with an aim toward adding some long-term versatility to the Terriers.
The results came a little earlier than expected when the two players who changed positions cashed in for the game-winner on Saturday night at Nickerson Field as BU shutout the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2-0, to extend its winning streak to four games.
Sophomore midfielder Susan Marschall, the converted back, helped put the only goal the Terriers (5-3-1; 1-0 America East) would need in motion. In the 38th minute, she took control of the ball around midfield on the left side and booted a lob kick almost 30 yards to the right side of the field.
Senior co-captain Rebecca Beyer, who made the transition from midfielder to forward, received the pass 25 yards out and raced to the goal. She faked her defender, Kristin English, out to the right and UMBC goalie Robin Babaris (five saves) came out to cover the right side of the net. Beyer took advantage, drilling the goal to the left of Babaris and into the middle of the net for her third tally of the season.
‘It was a perfect ball from Susan Marschall,’ Beyer said. ‘I was just running onto it, and I knew I had to put it in.’
BU sophomore midfielder Brooke Bingham added a goal at 54:09 to cushion the BU lead. Bingham’s goal came on a rebound from sophomore forward Meghann Cook’s shot, which deflected 10 yards off the crossbar.
Senior goalie Jessica Clinton recorded her 19th career shutout for the Terriers, stopping the one shot that the Retrievers (0-5; 0-3) put on net. The shutout moves her one behind Meghan Lynch on the all-time shutout list at BU.
‘She deserves to get these shutouts, because there have been some games where maybe the defense let her down or the team has let her down and maybe she’s let in a couple of goals that haven’t been her fault,’ Feldman said. ‘It’s nice when she can get an egg up on the board and hopefully get herself in the record books.’
While Feldman was happy with Clinton’s performance in net, she was less than ecstatic with the rest of her team’s play.
‘I thought we played into their hands a little bit. It became a kickball game at lots of times we’re better than that,’ Feldman said. ‘I don’t think we played as well as we have in the last three games. That’s a little disappointing from my point of view because [UMBC] is a solid team, but its not one of the better teams from our conference.’
The fact that UMBC came into the game winless may have been one of the reasons Feldman decided to experiment with the lineup change. BU has a plethora of backs and midfielders, but only four forwards: Cook, sophomore Melissa Shulman, junior Lauren Ciccone and senior Kathleen Chen. Cook and Ciccone split time in the first half as the third forward alongside Shulman and Beyer, but Cook played the majority of the second half.
The move came despite Ciccone’s three goals this season, which exceeded her career total of one in her previous two years. But the results are hard to argue with Beyer and Marschall both proved to be key players in their new roles and the experience in those roles can add a new twist to BU’s game plan for the rest of the season. Beyer had no complaints about her new role, whether it is temporary or more permanent.
‘It’s a new thing. Coach is trying to move me up up top,’ she said. ‘I played a little bit up there last year. I do [feel comfortable.] I just try to run as fast as I can and work hard to get the ball, as a midfielder as well.’
‘Certainly Rebecca did what we wanted her to do. It’s great, she made me look like a genius,’ Feldman said. ‘Rebecca is really feisty, she paid a price to score that goal. She’s very hard and brave. I think she’s more effective up front, because of that characteristic. She’s better running forward to the goal than she is in tight places.’
The lob pass from Marschall which led to her first assist of the year, was also exactly along the lines of what Feldman was looking for out off her sophomore, she said.
‘That’s what Susan gives us in the midfield she can hit a ball, like a 45-yard ball. She just blasted it, and that one ball gets someone in,’ Feldman said. ‘Right now, no one else in the midfield has proven they can hit that ball. It’s very important to be able to spray that ball in up front.
‘I think that switch is going to be effective. I liked some of the things I saw out of both of them tonight,’ she said.
For the most part, however, Feldman was somewhat disappointed in her team. Although they got off 24 shots, only seven of them were on net.
UMBC played a physical game throughout, often getting in an extra hit after the whistle or a tug on a Terrier jersey. Senior back Emily Dionne took a header into the boards in the first half and Beyer took a shoulder to her mouth as well.
‘I thought that we handled [the physical play] OK,’ Feldman said. ‘That might have been another reason we were a little bit out of sorts, but we’ve just got to be able to focus and concentrate through that. I thought we held our composure at least not retaliating. It didn’t look like we were backing off. In the second half I thought we came out strong.’
Beyer didn’t believe the physical play was much of an excuse for BU.
‘I didn’t think it was as bad as it was going to be. We had talked a lot about it before the game and I don’t think they were quite as bad as we thought,’ she said.
With BU’s next game scheduled for Tuesday across the river at Harvard University, Beyer hopes her team can just continue to add a number in the win column.
‘It’s good that we can establish a streak and remember what winning feels like,’ Beyer said. ‘We had a tough season last year. I think once you get that winning feeling, you just keep wanting it.’