Men’s Soccer: Terriers fight back to earn a 1-1 draw on the road against Navy
By Charlie DeMatteo
Boston University men’s soccer (2-2-6, 0-1-3 PL) came back from down one to earn a 1-1 draw against the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy (4-2-4, 2-0-2 PL) on Saturday in Annapolis, Maryland.
“I thought we showed really good character and resiliency,” BU Head Coach Kevin Nylen said. “It was a good point against a really good team here tonight at Navy.”
Last time out, BU tied 2-2 with Army in a closely matched game where the Terriers found offensive production. The goal for the Terriers against Navy continued the offensive output displayed last time out. They combined this with an air-tight defense on Saturday, which the Terriers have displayed for large parts of the season.
However, they found themselves a goal down after the Mids’ Jason Aoyama scored off of a Jake Granados assist in the 35th minute, giving Navy the lead.
“We didn’t play well in the first half and Navy were better than us,” Nylen said. “We can’t afford to give away 45 minutes in a conference game at this point in the season.”
Despite being down, BU looked set to strike back as it had seven corners in the second half compared to Navy’s zero. A bright spot for BU was freshman forward Diego Rived, who managed to muster four shots for the Terriers.
“Diego had a good performance today,” Nylen said. “He has come off the bench more than he has started but he has provided us with some really good depth and today was another really good performance by him.
BU continued to probe the Navy goal and finally got their breakthrough when Andrew Rent scored off of a Rived assist in the 73rd minute to level the scoreline.
“I’m really happy for [Rent] to get his first goal of the season,” Nylen said. “He has done a lot of work for us this season, so hopefully he keeps kicking on.”
BU’s six draws this year, which is partially thanks to a NCAA rule change that eliminated overtime for regular season games, mark a program record.
BU will look to end a run of four draws in a row next time out on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Nickerson Field against Harvard.