Men’s Soccer: Terriers Suffer Late Loss in Cross-Town Rivalry Match Against BC
Featured Image by Jenny Chen
By Adrianna Uykan
Boston University Men’s Soccer (4-3-0, 1-1-0 PL) suffered a tough 2-1 loss to the Boston College Eagles (5-4-0, 1-2-0 ACC) Tuesday night in Newton, Massachusetts.
The result seemed certain through 88 minutes played, with palpable excitement building among the Terriers. However, as one of baseball’s favorite sayings goes: “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
A powerful, long shot from BC senior defender CJ Williams suddenly evened the score with two minutes left to play, electrifying the home crowd in Newton. Newly awakened, the Eagles squeezed out another goal to secure their 12th straight unbeaten match against the Terriers.
The second goal came just 41 seconds after Williams’ strike — this time a low shot to the far end of the net, from senior forward Johannes Hanken Tjostheim inside the box.
Before the two late goals, the Terriers played a balanced and poised game. They applied pressure early, with six shots in the first half, keeping up with the Eagles’ seven shots. Both teams exchanged possession, yet neither were successful with shooting on target.
The only official shot on goal of the first half was thanks to a well-aimed 17th minute corner kick by BU senior midfielder Diego Rived. The ball fell perfectly at the feet of first-year defender Anthony Harper, who chipped it past the Eagles’ goalkeeper, Andrej Borak, to earn his first career goal.
“He’s been a great contributor and added a lot of value and played a lot of minutes early on in his freshman year,” BU Head Coach Kevin Nylen said of Harper. “His first goal [was] a big one … and he did well centrally.”
The Terriers nearly doubled their lead in the 25th minute when junior forward Andrea Di Blasio capitalized on a turnover in the BC box, but his wide-open shot sailed just over the crossbar.
BC kept battling to tie the score, sending a four-shot deluge in just seven minutes. In his second career start, junior goalkeeper Will Clavier kept up with BC but bobbled a ball, giving the Eagles an opportunity for more shots.
Coming into the second half, Nylen said the team was hoping to avoid a repeat of their Saturday match against Navy, where the Terriers weren’t as strong as their first 45 minutes.
However, the Terriers could not break this pattern.
The Eagles came out swinging early with a 49th minute shot by junior midfielder Marci Killeen — just blocked by BU senior defender Aidan Kieffer on the back line.
BC managed to keep up despite missing two top senior defenders due to injury: Christian Bejar, who played 1,497 minutes through all 17 matches last season — starting and playing the full 90 minutes in 14 — and Max Andrews, who played 1,346 minutes in 16 matches last season.
For most of the second half, both teams played clean soccer — back-and-forth possession with almost no stoppage from fouls, setting up set pieces but not capitalizing on them.
The energy of the match started to turn in favor of the Eagles with a 72nd minute sliding shot by sophomore midfielder Dylan Mafong, which was mere inches away from becoming an equalizing goal.
From then on, the Terriers’ defense started to break down, with BC finding windows and setting up good scoring chances. The tying goal came from a well-conducted set piece — the ball finding its way past a diving Di Blasio and a lunging Rived.
“We just weren’t as clinical in terms of what we did in their box, and we got paid for it at the end,” Nylen said.
The late goal took the air out of BU, leaving the perfect opportunity for BC to push past the Terriers’ defense and land another goal to secure a 2-1 rivalry win.
The Terriers look to rebound from this loss in a Patriot League matchup against the No. 24 Bucknell Bison on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.