Women’s Soccer: BU Takes Down Colgate to Win The Patriot League Regular Season Crown

Featured Image by Jenny Chen 

By Finley Rogan 

In a critical Patriot League showdown, Boston University Women’s Soccer (10-4-3, 7-1-1) defeated the Colgate Raiders (9-5-4, 6-2-1 PL) on Wednesday night at Nickerson Field. With this win, the Terriers will compete in the Patriot League Tournament — and they will do so on their home turf.  

“Super proud of them,” BU Head Coach Megan Burke said. “We obviously had something to prove coming into the season, and they’ve worked so hard.”

Following the 1-0 victory against Colgate, BU clinched the regular-season Patriot League crown. 

The first half was slow, with BU driving the play but not finding any elite chances. Both offenses were fairly equal to each other, pressuring from the start of the game for a goal. BU tallied six shots on goal in the first half, while the Raiders had seven.

Still, it’s a matter of which team can convert those shots on goal into actual points on the board. 

In the second half, senior forward Margy Porta, who is no stranger to clutch goals, tallied the match’s only score — 374 days after scoring the winner in last year’s Patriot League Semifinal.

“You always know what you’re going to get from Margy,” Burke said. “You always know she’s going to give 100%, and that’s why she creates chances on goal.”

The goal came in the 59th minute and was assisted by sophomore midfielder Olivia Avellar. Porta said last year’s loss to Army West Point was a motivating factor for the seniors. 

“We had the opportunity to win the regular season title, and we didn’t make it happen,” Porta said. “We knew that this year we were making it happen, and I think that goal and this performance from the team was just a testament to that.”

After the Terriers’ scored their first goal, the rest of the game’s focus was on their defense. 

BU has now gone 567 minutes since last allowing a goal and have won seven matches in a row. During the streak, BU has had matches where they score one goal, and others where they score six. The main consistency in this run of play, Burke said, has been the backline and goalkeeper.

“They’ve just done an unbelievable job,” Burke said. “It’s a collective effort defending from the front to the back, but specifically our backline and Bridget [Carr] in the past few games have done such a good job at communicating with one another, covering for each other and really executing in that part of the field.” 

In what has been a dominant run of matches, it was no surprise to see BU win another — even if it was against the No. 2-seeded Colgate. 

It has been a down year for Porta, and there was no better time to score her third goal of the season and reassert herself as a premier forward. 

BU will need her best form to repeat as champions of the Patriot League. The Terriers have a bye in the first round of the tournament and will be back in Boston Nov. 6 at 6 p.m. They will face the lowest remaining seed, and the winner will advance to the final. 

If BU wins, they will play the final at Nickerson Field. All matches will be available to stream on ESPN+.

“Obviously, it’s massive to win the regular season,” Burke said. “But we’re chasing a trophy, so it’s time to get ready for the semifinal next.”