By: Akshai Wadhwani<\/p>\n
BOSTON, MA\u00a0 –\u00a0 Saturday\u2019s inaugural Patriot League action at Nickerson Field will see a clash of two struggling defenses with almost identical records.<\/p>\n
Boston University men\u2019s soccer (1-4-2) will host American (1-3-2) in both sides\u2019 opening conference slate of 2018. The game will serve as a rematch in many respects; the Terriers and the Eagles also began league play against each other last season, a game which ended in a 2-0 victory for the former.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s installment looks set to be a high-scoring affair, with the two leakiest defenses in the Patriot League going up against one another\u2014a stoppable force meeting a movable object, if you will. BU have conceded 14 goals, American 18\u2014largely thanks to a 6-0 hammering at George Washington and a 5-1 loss to West Virginia. The combined total of 32 goals allowed gives the impression that the Nickerson Field scoreboard may be running up a scoreline in the realm of the absurd by the end of Saturday\u2019s fixture.<\/p>\n
BU\u2019s troubles remain compounded by the sustained absence of junior Matt McDonnell. The forward began the season in sublime fashion, netting a conference-leading six goals in the Terriers\u2019 first five matches. However, in a classic example of Murphy\u2019s Law, McDonnell went off injured in the second half of the Scarlet and White\u2019s 2-2 tie with Dartmouth on September 11. Wednesday\u2019s overtime loss to Harvard marked the second straight game in which the New York native did not appear on the roster.<\/p>\n
In McDonnell\u2019s absence, sophomore Toti Knutsson (3 assists), freshman Kari Petursson (1 goal, 1 assist), and junior Satchel Cortet (2 assists) have led offensive proceedings. Meanwhile, goalkeepers Mike Bernardi and William Bonnelyche display 33 saves between them; that includes Bernardi\u2019s 14 saves against Princeton, a 2018 NCAA high.<\/p>\n
American\u2019s season thus far has at times been quite bizarre. What was supposed to be their opening match of the season, an August 12 road match against North Carolina State, was canceled. Their next two fixtures, against Essex CC and St. Francis, were also scratched. Resultantly, the Eagles did not officially begin their season until August 24, when they hosted George Mason in a 2-1 win.<\/p>\n
American has not won a match since then; they have also seen yet another<\/em> match taken off the boards\u2014though this time temporarily\u2014with a slate against Gardner-Webb earlier this month being postponed.<\/p>\n Junior midfielder Fabio Massaro leads the Eagles with three goals for six points; sophomores Brenner Jarrad and Jerry Zouantcha follow close behind with a pair of tallies each. Massaro\u2019s fellow third-year, Tim Neumann, lists a team-high three assists. Meanwhile, freshman Lucas Manso has played all but forty-five minutes of the season, posting 26 stops and a .605 save percentage.<\/p>\n American holds the slight edge at 3-2-1, in an all-time series dating a short way back to 2013. However, BU could easily redirect the momentum from last year\u2019s 2-0 win into another Patriot League triumph.<\/p>\n Kickoff from Nickerson Field is set for 1 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Akshai Wadhwani BOSTON, MA\u00a0 –\u00a0 Saturday\u2019s inaugural Patriot League action at Nickerson Field will see a clash of two struggling defenses with almost identical records. Boston University men\u2019s soccer (1-4-2) will host American (1-3-2) in both sides\u2019 opening conference slate of 2018. The game will serve as a rematch in many respects; the Terriers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17192,"featured_media":12078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1030],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21599,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15314\/revisions\/21599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}