The Stony Brook men’s soccer team lost to Boston University Saturday night at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium, 2-1, in its first conference game of the season.
The Seawolves (6-5-1, 0-1-0) entered the game having not lost since the Dartmouth Classic back on Sept. 10, running off an impressive six game unbeaten run. But two early second-half goals were all the Terriers (6-3-1, 1-0-0) needed to hand Stony Brook their first loss in America East conference play.
“Once you get into conference play, games are played tight to the vest and mistakes are going to decide who wins games,” Stony Brook head coach Cesar Markovic said. “We paid the price on two mistakes.”
Despite being outshot 14-5 in the first 45 minutes, the teams played to a first-half draw in which sophomore goalkeeper Stefan Manz (Bronx, N.Y.) made two impressive saves to keep BU’s offense off the board.
But the Stony Brook defense wilted early in the second half, as BU forward Aaron O’Neal punched in a goal from one yard out off a cross from forward Stephen Knox in the 59th minute to put his team up 1-0.
The Terriers would add to the lead in the 68th minute, turning a Stony Brook miscue into a 3-on-2 breakaway. Boston University’s Ben Berube took a quick pass in transition finding himself one-on-one with the goalie for what turned out to be the deciding goal.
Down 2-0, the slumbering Stony Brook offense seemed to finally wake up, taking a flurry of shots in the last twenty minutes. The aggressiveness finally paid off in the 89th minute as sophomore midfielder Leonardo Fernandes (North Babylon, N.Y.) scored Stony Brook’s only goal on a penalty kick. It was Fernandes’ fifth goal of the season tying him with fellow sophomore Berian Gobeil (Montreal, Quebec) for the team lead. The goal, which came with just 5.5 seconds left in the game, was not enough.
Coach Markovic, though not content with his team’s overall performance was encouraged by the late score.
“The last minutes of the game we played well,” Markovic said. “We pressured them, and we ended up getting a goal. You never know how big that goal will end up being in the end. I’m glad we kept coming, and we ended up pulling one back.”
The late goal saved Stony Brook from being shut out for the third time this season, but could not help them losing at home for the first time this year.
To add insult to injury, Stony Brook’s loss to BU seems to justify the America East preseason rankings which had the Terriers labeled as the favorites, with the Seawolves a close #2.
Stony Brook will travel to Albany for their second conference game of the season on Saturday and hope to get back to their winning ways.
“We have a week to prepare for the game, and I think it’ll have to be a very good week,” Coach Markovic said. “We need to get our guys right away focused on the week ahead, and…we need to improve.”
