Men’s Soccer: Terriers fall to Holy Cross 2-1 in Regular Season Finale
By Charlie DeMatteo
Boston University Men’s Soccer (6-5-6, 4-2-3 PL) fell to the Holy Cross Crusaders (5-9-4, 1-5-3 PL) 2-1 on Wednesday night in Worcester. However, Army’s draw with Lafayette meant that despite their loss, the Terriers earned the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Patriot League Tournament.
The Terriers took a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute, but conceded twice before the break and trailed 2-1. Despite an uptick in energy in the second half, the Terriers couldn’t find a way to level the scoring and handed Holy Cross their first Patriot League victory of the season.
“It’s a tough one, I feel for the guys but I don’t think we played a full 90 tonight,” BU Head Coach Kevin Nylen said. “While we’re disappointed to not get a result, we are also the 2-seed and have a bye.”
BU got off to a slow start in Worcester as Holy Cross attackers Liam Coffey and Evan Jones both had clear attempts on goal saved by BU goalkeeper Francesco Montali.
Despite Holy Cross threatening, BU took a 1-0 lead with their first shot on goal through Daniel Kim. Defender Griffin Roach played a long ball to forward Andrew Rent, and Rent poked the ball past the Holy Cross goalie Josh Tubbs to find Daniel Kim, who slotted it home into an empty net.
BU’s lead would last just 14 minutes though, as Holy Cross forward Dylan Scanley was found in open space by his teammate Ethan Gill in the 38th minute to slide home the equalizer low into the bottom left corner past a diving Montali.
Holy Cross went on to take the lead just four minutes later, as Crusader defender Marcus Williams latched onto a cross and had his first shot saved by Montali before scoring off of his own rebound to give Holy Cross the 2-1 lead.
“In the first half I thought we were rather poor,” Nylen said. “We were a little stretched centrally, and it was almost as if we were a second late to a lot of stuff.”
The Terriers came out in the second half with chances from Brian Hernandez in the 56th minute, whose acrobatic effort stung the crossbar, and from Quin Matulis, whose long-range effort curled just outside the post just a few moments later.
“We addressed a couple of things… we continued to tell the guys to find themselves in pockets and to play,” Nylen said. “I thought we did a better job [in the first half]…we hit the crossbar a few times and had a couple of decent chances in the six-yard-box.”
Despite their attempts in the second half, the Terriers were unable to find the equalizing goal.
The Terriers will play in the Patriot League semifinals at Nickerson Field next Tuesday at 6 p.m. against the highest remaining seed out of the quarterfinal games.