The American University Eagles (4-3-3) and Boston University Terriers (1-8-2) battled to a standstill in a grueling 1-1 tie Saturday.
The first half of the match was a scoreless affair, but not without plenty of chances for AU to score. The Eagles had six corners and six shots in the first half, but were unable to capitalize on any of them. They had a penalty kick in the 7th minute, but senior forward David Coly went wide with the attempt.
The action kicked off fast in the second half as the Eagles got on the board quickly. The referee gave Boston University goalie Francesco Montali a yellow card in the box after tripping up sophomore forward Robbie Matei, giving Coly another chance with a penalty kick in the 48th minute. Coly didn’t miss that one, striking the ball into the lower left of the net to get his fifth goal of the season and tie his own school record for consecutive games with a point with seven.
“It means a lot, but I’d like to give all the credit to my teammates,” Coly said. “They put me on the spot, they do all the work behind me and I would say I have the easiest job on the team because I just finish it, so all the credit to them.”
Following Coly’s score, yellow cards began to fly for both teams with a total of six in the match, five of which were in the second half.
The most notable of which was handed to BU’s head coach Kevin Nylen. Nylen and the rest of the Terrier bench were irate after a perceived missed handball call on sophomore midfielder Evan Schweickert that gave the Terriers a penalty kick.
The Terriers managed to shake off the penalty trouble and equalized the game in the 78th minute, the final goal of the match. In both overtimes, each team had chances to finish the game with a win, yet neither could capitalize.
“It was a good game actually,” head coach Zach Samol said. “Both teams had spells in it and overall I am a little disappointed in the point today … When we had our spell early on and we had our chances, we just didn’t bury them.”
While it was a disappointing finish, the Eagles again played well defensively. Sophomore goalkeeper Lorenzo Gordon picked up five saves in the match to keep the Terriers from scoring more than just one goal.
The Eagles will return to Reeves Field Saturday at 2 p.m. ET to face Army after falling 3-0 on the road to Loyola Maryland Tuesday night.
