Controversial call helps spur Terriers to win

It probably doesn’t come as too much of a surprise to any sports fan that referees and officials can, and often have, had profound impacts on the final results of games. Be it a missed call on a bang-bang play at first base or a blocking foul being called when it was a charge, a missed or botched decision by an official can change the momentum of an individual game or even an entire season.

Last Saturday at Nickerson Field, a no-call on a potential offside play helped the Boston University men’s soccer team surge ahead of the University of Hartford in the Terriers’ 2-0 victory over the Hawks.

Constantly playing on the defensive against a motivated opponent, BU struggled through most of the first half. The Terriers had several defensive miscues and general sloppy play that led to numerous Hartford chances, something that accounted for the Hawks’ 8-6 shot advantage in the half.

With the game tied 0-0 in the 32nd minute of the match, freshman midfielder Derek McCaffrey sent a ball forward from the defensive third in what appeared to be a clearance.

However, the ball found its way to the feet of junior forward Ben Berube just past midfield, a whole five yards ahead of the nearest Hartford defender. Berube then capitalized on a one-on-one with Hartford goalkeeper Luke Citriniti, striking a shot in the bottom right corner to break the scoreless deadlock and give the Terriers the lead they would hold for the remainder of the match.

The play drew protest and confusion from the Hawks, with defenders and coaches discussing the play with the referee.

Ultimately, however, the goal stood in what became a decisive, albeit controversial moment of the game.

“I’m not exactly sure if I was off or not,” Berube said. “I don’t think I was because I’m pretty sure I was on our half and if you’re inside your own half, then it’s not offside.

“So right when Derek kicked the ball, I knew that he was going to put it over, so right when he kicked it I ran. I don’t think I was, but I could have been.”

Offside is often one of the more contested calls in a soccer match and the rules that surround it can make it that much more confounding to the average fan.

A player is only offside when they are ahead of the second-to-last defender (the goalie being the last) when the ball that they receive is played. Berube was at least five yards ahead of the nearest defender when he received McCaffrey’s pass, but his position when the pass was made was all that matters.

Also, a player, regardless of how far offside they may be, cannot be ruled offside if they are in the half of the field that their team is defending, something that was alluded to by Berube and teammate, junior defender Colin Henry.

“I think what happened was he was behind the defender, but he was on our own half,” Henry said. “So if you’re on your own half, you can be off by 20 yards.”

BU coach Neil Roberts, much like Berube, neither confirmed nor denied whether or not Berube was indeed offside.

“The assistant coaches said to me that when the ball was played Ben kind of came back and then went forward,” Roberts said. “It was a long ball and it was traveling a lot, so by the time everyone looked up and looked at Ben, then he was in an offside position.

“And we knew that [Hartford] did that, they always play very high, so we knew we were going to get some of those. The linesman was right there.”

The goal was Berube’s fifth of the season, all of which have come in the Terriers’ last four games.

For a play that was so questionable, what is undeniable is the impact that the goal had on the game going forward.

For this BU team, the goal, hotly debated as it was, turned the momentum in a game in which the Terriers desperately needed it.

“It definitely changed the game,” Berube said. “They were pretty much dominating us, so it was good for our momentum, and then Ben got the second goal and that pretty much put the game away, and that’s what we needed.”