By Eoghan Kelly, News Staff
As the 110th minute ticked to an end Saturday night at Parsons Field, the orange glow of the scoreboard told an unfamiliar story for the men’s soccer team.
The score read 0-0, an apathetic finish to a game in which Northeastern had so much at stake so many years in the making.
It was Senior Night, the home finale of the careers of five Huskies – forward Don Anding; midfielders Andre Ciliotta, Eric Dyer and Eddie Nam; and goalkeeper Oliver Blum – who played instrumental roles in the program as it transformed into one of the elites of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).
Saturday also marked a dual opportunity. Northeastern had the chance to win an astounding 15th consecutive game at home while securing first place in the CAA and the right to host the conference postseason tournament next week.
Instead, George Mason University lulled the Huskies into a scoreless stalemate, the first game of 2012 in which the Red and Black did not tally a goal and the first time since Nov. 6, 2010 they did not win in front of their home crowd.
Northeastern (11-1-4, 6-0-3 CAA) is now in second place in the conference standings with 21 points.
“It’s a big disappointment ‘cause of the spot we put ourselves in,” said Blum, who matched a season-high with six saves Saturday. “We controlled our own destiny before the game. If we just won our next two games we’d be top of the conference, we’d be hosting [the CAA tournament]. Now it’s that feeling of it’s no longer in our hands, we kind of dropped the ball a little bit.”
Head coach Brian Ainscough said the result of the game was a let-down given how much was on the line.
“The job was to go out and get three points and a result, so we’re a little disappointed in that,” Ainscough said. “There’s a lot at stake now in the CAA and all the other good stuff down the road, but we’re not there yet … We needed to make sure we got a ‘W’ coming out tonight.”
The senior night disappointment was one of few for a class that in the last four years has gone 36-24-11 overall (21-6-3 at home) and reached the CAA playoffs three times, including a trip to the CAA championship game in 2009.
As freshmen, Anding and Ciliotta helped lead the Huskies to wins in 10 of their final 13 games to earn the third seed in the CAA Tournament.
In the semifinals, Anding scored a second-half goal and Ciliotta netted the game-winner eight minutes into overtime to knock off No. 2 College of William & Mary before losing 1-0 to the top-seeded University of North Carolina-Wilmington in the title game.
Anding finished the 2009 season with seven goals and two assists, earning him CAA Rookie of the Year, All-CAA First Team and All-Rookie Team honors. Ciliotta tallied four goals and six assists and was also named to the All-Rookie Team.
Blum transferred to Northeastern from Providence College as a sophomore the following year, and faced a daunting task as the Huskies faced three powerhouse programs – Georgetown University, Syracuse University and the University of Maryland – in their first three games. The result was a precursor to the remainder of the season as they dropped all three games and were outscored 8-1 en route to going 5-9-3 and missing out on the postseason for the first time since 2005.
“Last year, having a good season and then just maybe not closing the door at the end, really finishing things off, and going 10-6 and we just left everything on the table we could’ve,” Blum said of the 2011-12 season. “Maybe one more win and we would’ve been in the NCAA tournament. So this year’s kind of been an accumulation of everything else … It’s a big learning process.”
This record-breaking season is what the senior class will be remembered for.
The Huskies followed a 4-1 drubbing at the University of Michigan on Sept. 9 with a school-record 12 consecutive games without a loss – a stretch that also included a program-best six-game winning streak and clinching of a CAA tournament berth in a 2-1 win over the University of North Carolina-Wilmington on Oct. 20. They rose to the top of the CAA and beat two teams – James Madison University on Oct. 6 (1-0) and the University of Delaware on Oct. 10 (2-0) – that made appearances in the 2011 NCAA tournament in the process.
And the seniors led them through it all.
Nam battled injuries throughout the season but has returned to the active roster in time for the postseason. Dyer is an experienced player who came on as a substitute in four games while Ciliotta has overcome injury to start 10 games, appear in four others and score the game-winning goal in double overtime against Hofstra University on Oct. 17.
Blum and Anding have been the team’s superstars. Blum has amassed five shutouts in 13 starts and is first in the CAA in goals against average (0.62), second in save percentage (.830) and eighth and 20th, respectively, in the NCAA in both categories.
Anding has complemented the stellar play of his goalkeeper with a career year of his own, rising to the top of the CAA in points (28) and points per game (1.75) and second in the conference in goals (11). The two have combined for four CAA Player of the Week awards this season alone.
Ainscough had only praise for his senior class.
“All our seniors have been here [since] when we were just building our program,” Ainscough said. “When I recruited them, we were recruiting them into a program that wasn’t really top of the CAA by any standards. Now they’ve helped us push this along, so we’re really gratifying for them.”
The Huskies will need another strong performance from their seniors Friday night at No. 24 Old Dominion University after Saturday’s draw stripped them of their ability to earn first place in the conference on their own. They need a win at ODU (4-3-2) and James Madison University (6-1-2 CAA) to beat or draw with Drexel University (7-1-1 CAA) to secure the top seed and bring the CAA tournament to Boston.
Blum said he and the team want nothing more than to play the postseason in front of their home crowd.
“I’m going out, just throwing caution to the wind: We wanna win,” Blum said. “We’re gonna go for a win because a tie essentially does nothing. If Drexel loses and we tie, we come in first, but that’s not gonna be the mindset … We want to get out and get the win.”
