Terriers silence Huskies Saturday

The No. 12 men's soccer team was handed a 3-0 defeat at the hands of No. 24 Boston University Saturday night at Morrone Stadium. While the Huskies (1-1-0), held the ball and controlled the pace for most of the game, the Terriers (1-0-1), were able to capitalize on a few mistakes in order to take and build on a lead.

Boston University sought to put on the pressure early, consistently making runs during the first ten minutes of the game. UConn was able to halt their progress and began mounting an offensive attack of their own. With 18:03 left in the first half Mike Pezza sent a free kick into the box that almost connected with a few UConn heads. Boston then took the ball down the field and was able to put a shot on a goal that was deflected off a UConn defender into the goal.

"They got the goal against the run of play and as soon as they made the goal, we dropped our heads until the half," head coach Ray Reid said after the game.

The second half brought out a much more energetic and physical UConn team. The Huskies held the ball in the BU side of the field, and were able to amass seven shots during the period. The attack was constantly stifled, and not always by the BU defense. UConn was caught in close offside calls twice during the period. Greg King led many charges from his defensive position and passed the ball into the middle, but the offense couldn't take it from there and struggled to score against a compact BU defense.

With time winding down, the Huskies were forced to get more aggressive with their offense and gamble more on defense. Aaron O'Neal of BU was able to score twice in the final minutes to seal the win for the Terriers. The gambles that the Huskies were forced to take contributed to the goals scored by O'neal.

After the game, coach Reid talked about how the team needs to be more efficient with the ball and that the score was not indicative of how close the actual game was.

"I would say that we were good for about 40 minutes of the second half, but it happens. I mean, their goal deflected off one of our guys, In this kind of sport you can't give a team a goal because then you have to chase the game."

Alan Ponce was able to follow up his first game as a Husky with two shots on goal and four in total. Ponce and the other Huskies forced the BU goalie into making a total of six saves.

The Huskies travel to Hanover, N.H next to play in the Dartmouth Tournament. On the 11th they take on Dartmouth and play Iona on the 13th. These two games will start a four game road trip for the team and they won't be returning to Storrs until Sept. 25.