After being shut out 2-0 twice by Boston University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County there is one indisputable fact about the Northeastern men’s soccer team: They’re having trouble putting the ball in the net.
In 14 games played this season, the Huskies (2-8-4, 1-3-3 AE) have scored a total of seven goals, an average of half a goal a game.
“Surprisingly their morale isn’t that low,” said NU head coach Ed Matz. “[Captain] Joey Parrish has been outstanding this year. He’s really keeping them focused.”
In one of their most important games of the season, the Huskies lost to host UMBC (7-5-2, 3-4 AE) on Saturday 2-0. Not only did they lose the game but the Dogs lost a chance to put themselves on the inside of the playoff picture. Now, they find themselves buried in 8th place with just two America East games remaining.
Although they are still mathematically in the playoff picture, the Huskies are no longer in control of their own destiny. Even if they win out the remainder of their conference slate they still would need UMBC and the University of Vermont to lose their remaining games in order to get a chance to make the AE championship for a fourth-straight season.
“Our defense has been stellar all year long,” Matz said. “We are playing good. We’re just not rewarding ourselves. It’s not for lack of effort.”
In a rematch of last year’s second-round playoff game in which NU defeated UMBC 1-0, junior keeper Sergio Saccoccio fended off three shots in the first 10 minutes of Saturday’s game against the Retrievers in Baltimore, Md.
The NU defense settled in after UMBC’s initial onslaught and kept the game scoreless for the remainder of the first half. But the Retrievers came out strong in the second half and in the 48th minute found a way to crack Saccoccio, when George Bakoulas scored the game’s first goal off an assist by Matt Watson.
Twenty minutes later they would add a little salt to the wound with an insurance goal by Powell Cucchiella.
“In a way we are a victim of our own success the past few years,” Matz said. “We have dominated the conference and a lot of teams are getting up to play us.”
On Wednesday, the Huskies hosted the first-place Boston University Terriers in a cross-town match up. The game was marred by a total of 28 fouls; 11 against NU and 17 against BU.
One of those NU fouls was called in the box and led to the Terriers first goal of the game, when BU midfielder Jamie Johnson got Saccoccio to guess wrong on his free kick at the 16:48 mark. Sedrick Chin added the second goal in the 81st minute. BU out shot NU 8-5 on the day.
“We are going to change the formation up a bit,” Matz said. “But you can change it all you want; there’s still going to be 11 people on the field.”
The Huskies play their final non-conference game of the season Wednesday when they host another bitter cross-town rival, Boston College, at 3 p.m. on Parsons Field. On Halloween, the Dogs will play their final home game of the season when they host last-place University of Hartford at 1 p.m.
