BC committed eight fouls in the loss. (Emily Ahern / Heights Editor)
Boston College men’s soccer took an early 1–0 lead in its match against Siena on Monday night, and all it took was a perfectly-placed pass and a tough shot that flew into the left corner of the net.
It was Jack Burkhardt who booted it upfield less than nine minutes in. His pass dropped down right in front of a sprinting Russell Brown, who had beaten everyone up the field.
The ball took one big bounce before Brown reached it, and he made contact with it as it came back up, booting it so hard into Siena’s net that he seemed to stumble for a moment afterward.
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BC’s (1–1) 1–0 lead didn’t last long, though. Siena (1–1) scored less than five minutes later, then outscored the Eagles 2–0 in the second half as BC fell 3–1 at home.
It was Siena’s first power conference win in 14 years.
“I thought our mentality in general was good, in the sense that we came to the game to work hard,” BC head coach Bob Thompson said. “But in the end, you have to perform well.”
The Saints got off 17 shots compared to BC’s 12. And although first-year goalkeeper Andrej Borak put up four saves, that wasn’t enough.
“I just thought we were just off in general,” Thompson said. “Particularly, just technically on the ball. Too many giveaways—it felt like all of their goals were kind of self-inflicted.”
Behind Siena’s win was Campbell Stalker, who has three goals in just two games so far this season. He came sprinting toward the goal after a stop by Borak and, taking advantage of the goalkeeper’s vulnerability, scored on the rebound.
BC also committed eight fouls in the loss.
“I just thought we were wasteful on the ball,” Thompson said. “We just turned the ball over too many times in bad areas.”
It was tied at one goal each headed into halftime following Stalker’s goal. But Lee Mara changed that 20 minutes into the second half.
Mara took advantage of a header that bounced parallel in front of BC’s goal. Running in on the left side, he kicked the ball as it came down. It flew past Borak and put the Saints up 2–1.
Stalker struck again in the second half—that time, it was for the lead.
He took a shot off a cross from Benjamin Fogarty. Though Borak rejected it the first time around, Stalker got his own rebound and scored his second goal of the game, cementing a 3–1 loss for the Eagles and bringing BC to 1–1 on the season ahead of its first road game of the year on Friday.
“It’s a long season,” Thompson said. “We’re going to have some ups and downs. Just looking for a good response.”