So far this season – a season that’s just two and a half weeks old – the Boston University men’s soccer team and head coach Neil Roberts have seen a lot: injuries, heartbreaking losses and collegiate career firsts, among other things.
But despite the Terriers’ (1-3) disappointing start, one of the more notable developments has been a handful of freshmen that have stepped up into starting positions.
Rook rocks
BU’s roster features 14 freshmen – 10 of them true freshmen and the other four redshirts – several of who have played a significant amount of minutes. Defenders Sanford Spivey and Taylor Washington, forward Dominique Badji, midfielder Cameron Souri and goalkeeper Nick Thomson all started in the team’s most recent game, a 2-1 loss to Seton Hall University, and got a majority of the playing time.
But since they’re learning on the fly, Roberts indicated that they’re in a bit of a transition mode right now.
“Once you’re on the field, you can’t use the excuse of being a freshman,” Roberts said. “They’re doing fine. We’re making mistakes as a team, but we have to cut them down and I think as time goes on we’ll see us taking advantage of the opportunities we’re creating.”
Washington, a defender who frequently makes offensive runs up the field by design, in particular is adjusting.
Roberts said on Friday, “He is an attacking player and he has got a lot to learn, but he is getting there. He is kind of in between right now but eventually he will be there.”
Aches and pains
Senior captain and defender Colin Henry went down late in the second half versus Seton Hall on Friday with an apparent ankle injury and missed the rest of regulation. He went back out onto the field with the team when overtime began, but Roberts confirmed on Monday that Henry does indeed have a sprained ankle.
The 2010 America East Defender of the Year was still a bit ginger at practice on Monday, according to Roberts, but is expected to be at full strength for Friday’s game versus University of Connecticut.
“He was a little sore, but he’ll continue training [Tuesday,]” Roberts said.
Fortunately for BU, no other active Terriers have significant injuries, and even senior midfielder Michael Bustamante is with the team while he rehabs a season-ending back injury from last spring.
“He’s working on getting back. He’s pretty much running full strength and getting his strength back in the pool,” Roberts said. “He’s close, and he’s doing fine.”
Despite the positive report, Bustamante is still out for the year.
Home sweet home?
After opening the season with a 1-1 road trip before move-in weekend, the Terriers started the school year with a three-game, two-and-a-half-week home stand versus Big East competition.
But the Big East teams have lived up to their billing, and after dropping the first two contests, BU will try to salvage its stay when it takes on UConn. It is team’s the last home game until Oct. 4.
Mr. 300
Due to the long layoff from home games, if the Terriers want to get Roberts his 300th career win at Nickerson Field, they will likely need do it Friday.
Roberts, though, isn’t thinking about it and doesn’t think his athletes are either.
“We don’t talk about that,” Roberts said. “We all have the same goal, and that’s to be a good team and play well. We want to be proud of the way we play.”
However, after Friday night’s loss to Seton Hall, Badji said it was something the team indeed had on its collective mind.
“We really want coach to get this win real bad,” Badji said late last week. “We are going to work really hard during the next game to give it to him.
“He deserves it, he has been here so long, and he has worked hard.”
America East play creeping up
A lackluster start to the season can be washed away by a strong start in conference play, which is rapidly approaching. After the team’s game against UConn, it will pay visits to the University of Massachusetts (Sept. 18, 2 p.m.), Brown University (Sept. 23, 7 p.m.) and nearby Harvard University (Sept. 28, 7 p.m.) before opening the AE portion of its schedule on Oct. 1 at the University of Hartford.
The Terriers were selected in a pre-season coaches poll to win the AE crown, but will need to work on several aspects of their game in order to see that prediction through.
“We need to get our possession better, we need to obviously defend better in our midfield and defend better as a group,” Roberts said. “I think the bright side right now is that we’re creating a lot of chances.”
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