This was BC's first loss to BU since 2016. (Sarah Fleming / Heights Editor)
Sunday afternoon’s Battle of Comm. Ave looked eerily similar to No. 4 Boston College field hockey’s game on Friday night against No. 14 UMass.
After the Minutewomen’s shootout win over the Eagles two days prior, BC (3–3) ended the weekend on a similar note, falling 1–0 in an upset win for the Terriers (2–3).
The Eagles ended the game kneeling in disbelief after being taken down by their unranked Patriot League opponents.
In a weekend of woes, Sunday’s performance did not seem catastrophic until the last two minutes of the matchup. What plagued BC was not a new problem, but rather its inability to convert in the cage.
Through their first six games of the season, the Eagles have put up just two goals. That offensive stagnation didn’t cease at BU this afternoon.
Despite nine BC shots in the first frame, none of them ended up in the back of the net, and neither did any of the Eagles’ four penalty corner opportunities.
Sunday wasn’t a battle of dominance, but of who was the least sloppy on both sides of the ball. And BU took that title with ease. With a career-high 10 saves, Sophie Ortyl denied any and all of BC’s attacks on the net.
While the Eagles outshot the Terriers 16–3, it only took one shot for BU to take the matchup. Even though the Eagles had nine shots on target, none of them amounted to anything.
After Ortyl came up with a big-time save against Caroline Chisholm, the Terriers took no time to take the ball down to the other side of the field. It took the Terriers just 43 seconds after Ortyl’s save to score their first and only goal of the contest.
It all started with Caroline O’Brien, who swept the ball toward a sprinting Delfi Coulo. After beating her defender, O’Brien pieced together the game-winning pass to her teammate.
It couldn’t have been a better ending for the Terriers. Coulo made the first goal of her college career count, flicking the ball swiftly into the back of the Eagles’ net, past the reach of Charley Kramer’s gloves.
The Eagles had hardly any time to punch back. When the clock sounded, BC was on the losing end for the third straight game.