By Zach Hayes, News Staff
Despite outshooting No. 11 William & Mary 16-10 and having a 10-1 advantage in corner kicks, the men’s soccer team fell 2-1 in overtime Saturday on Senior Day at Parsons Field.
“It was disappointing overall,” said junior forward Mike Kennedy. “We had high expectations going into the season and we definitely had the talent. Some results didn’t fall our way and we found ourselves chasing a bit.”
It was a similar refrain for the Huskies, who for the seventh time this season lost by a one-goal margin. The defeat ended the team’s chances of clinching a spot in the CAA Tournament.
“This was like a picture that we’ve been seeing a lot of games,” head coach Brian Ainscough said. “We lost four overtime and three double-overtime games. For us to have our record and then look at the corner kicks we’ve had and shots on goal, you usually don’t have the record we had.”
Northeastern dominated the first half, constantly attacking on offense and totaling 10 shots compared to W&M’s four. Seconds after Kennedy relieved injured sophomore forward Don Anding, the junior midfielder received a feed from streaking senior forward Nick Lueders in front of the net. Kennedy beat Tribe goalkeeper Andrew McAdams for his team-leading seventh goal of the season to give the Huskies an early advantage.
Four minutes following Kennedy’s goal, W&M struck back. The Tribe’s lone corner kick of the half produced a loose ball in the box, and forward Nathaniel Baako controlled the ball and beat Huskies sophomore goalkeeper Oliver Blum for his fourth score of the campaign to even the contest at 1-1.
Even though the Tribe deployed a more aggressive gameplan after halftime, the Huskies senior defenders Santiago Bedoya, Matt Sanford and Brendan Ennis constantly thwarted any attack. Playing in their final game as Huskies, the trio of captains allowed only five Tribe shots in the second half. Their play was highlighted by Ennis’ header off the crossbar on a Tribe shot that prevented a golden scoring opportunity.
“Brendan came in here five years ago as part of my first recruiting class and he doesn’t get any accolades,” Ainscough said. “He’s the unsung hero, the toughest kid we have in that group and a team guy. All the shutouts we’ve had the last couple years are [attributed] to Brendan, Matt and Santy [Bedoya]. Those three are going to be sorely missed and hard to replace. They were tremendous players to have around the last four years.”
Five minutes into overtime, though, the normally headstrong Northeastern defense was finally beat for the deciding goal. Tribe leading scorer and forward Alan Koger blasted a shot from the top right corner of the box that beat Blum and ended the Huskies season.
“We were a tired team mentally and we didn’t defend it as well as we should,” Ainscough said. “It was a pretty soft goal. The kids worked hard for 90-some minutes and you knew mental mistakes were going to cause the problem as much as physical.”
It was yet another contest in which Ainscough and the Huskies felt they out-played their opponent, but finished on the losing side.
“We should still be playing next week,” Ainscough said. “That’s the frustrating part for our seniors back there who do their work night in and night out to open up that part of the field. If you look at the first ten minutes they could have got on the bus and went home if we took care of those three or four shots.”
Along with the captains Bedoya, Sanford and Ennis, it was a disappointing end to distinguished careers for Huskies seniors Nick Lueders, Michael Davis and Jordan Barbach. Lueders finished with one of his best performances, pacing Northeastern with seven shots. The Needham native participated in three postseasons with the Huskies and concludes his career with 11 goals and five assists in 71 games.
Bedoya is the only senior to have started every game in his Huskies career, and his 6,012 minutes places him third on Northeastern’s all-time list. A defender with advanced offensive skills, the 2009 all-CAA performer finished his career with three goals and nine assists.
Barely trailing Bedoya in minutes are Sanford and Ennis, who rank fourth and fifth respectively on that list. A preseason All-CAA defender, Sanford saw action in 67 career games and played an integral role in 25 shutouts. Ennis, a two-time captain, contributed to 23 shutouts during his time in a Huskies uniform.
The final two seniors, Davis and Barbach, provided quality goalkeeper depth during their careers. Davis dressed in 35 games as a Husky and has been a tutor and mentor for fellow athletes throughout his time at Northeastern, while Barbach has been a constant competitor and leader during his three years as a backup keeper.
The loss concludes the 2010 campaign at a disappointing 5-9-3 overall and 3-5-3 in conference play, one in which Northeastern felt they had the combination of seniors, youth, scoring and defense to win the conference and clinch an NCAA Tournament bid.
“[The seniors] helped build the program to where we’ve been better every year in our records,” Ainscough said. “It’s really disappointing. The seniors should get the fruits of it, and we let them down, me as a coach and the rest of our offensive game, so I feel really bad for them.”
