Men’s soccer hopes to ground Hawks

The America East Conference regular season champion Boston University men’s soccer team will begin its quest for the America East Tournament championship in its semifinal matchup with University of Hartford at Nickerson Field on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The Terriers (9-8, 5-2 America East) will try to avoid the result of last year’s conference semifinal, in which they were defeated by University of New Hampshire.

This year BU will have its hands full again as it faces off against arguably the hottest team in the conference. Hartford (7-8-4, 3-2-2 America East) has won four in a row, including defeating second-seeded Stony Brook University once, and third-seeded University of Maryland-Baltimore County twice.

The Hawks defeated defending America East champion UMBC in the quarterfinals last Saturday by a score of 1-0.

“They are playing well. They are on a very good streak,” said BU head coach Neil Roberts. “They have a balanced attack and they have different people scoring goals. You have to play well, you have to play clean in the back and try to limit their opportunities.”

The primary offensive weapon for the Hawks is forward David Bernhardsson, who is tied for the team’s lead in points with 15 despite missing eight games. The Swede was named to the All-America East first team for his production.

While the Hawks have been winning lately, they lost to BU in their first America East game of the season on Oct. 1. BU won the matchup 1-0 thanks to a stellar defensive effort and a goal from freshman forward Dominique Badji.

While BU’s defense has performed well enough to be tied for the fewest goals allowed in the league, its most recent performance was its worst of the season. The Terriers lost their last game of the year 5-1 to last-place Binghamton University, and will be looking to bounce back from that effort on Wednesday.

“I think defensively we will be back to where we usually have been all year,” Roberts said. “We definitely didn’t perform the way we wanted to perform, but I think that is past us now and I think we will be fine defensively.”

This late in the season, teams often rely on the experience of their upperclassmen to lead them to victory. On a team with so many underclassmen, the Terriers will depend on senior midfielder Stephen Knox and senior forward Ben Berube for offense and leadership.

“Knoxy and Ben both have to be dangerous for us – that is going to be a key,” Roberts said. “Knoxy has been very dangerous at times, and so has Ben so I think if both can be on it will be key.”

Another senior leader the Terriers will hope to have ready for the game is defender Colin Henry, who has missed nine games this season with a hamstring injury. Henry has been training with the team, and will be a game-time decision tomorrow.

Thanks to their efforts during the regular season, the Terriers will continue to play at Nickerson Field as long as they last in the America East Tournament. While this would be an obvious advantage for most teams, that may not be the case for the Terriers. BU is 3-5 at home this year, while it is 6-3 on the road.

If BU can move on in the tournament, it will face the winner of a matchup between Stony Brook and the University at Albany, which is also scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. The winner of the finals will be the America East champion and will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

For now though, the Terriers are focused on the Hawks.
“It is a knockout round so if you win you move on, and if you lose you are done,” Roberts said. “You really don’t have to worry about Saturday, you just have to worry about Wednesday night because without performing then it doesn’t matter.”