As the ball came down the right sideline Boston College men’s soccer’s Marci Killeen was ready. A one-touch pass from Max Andrews found him behind Southern Methodist’s defensive line with the chance to score his second goal in as many games.
His shot into the bottom-right corner was saved by the Mustangs’ Martin Dominguez at the 18:09 mark but deflected right back to Killeen. This time, he decided to pass the ball to a wide-open Christian Bejar.
A goal-line block from SMU’s Cesar Ruvalcaba denied the Eagles their best opportunity of the match, however, and BC (6–5–6, 1–4–3 Atlantic Coast) fell to the Mustangs (10–2–5, 4–2–2) 1–0 in the opening round of the ACC Tournament.
The game started slow as neither team could register a shot on goal until the 11:32 mark. SMU’s Jaylinn Mitchell found himself with space at the top of the box, before rolling the ball into the path of the overlapping Nikola Djordjevic, who took a shot toward the bottom-right corner of the net.
BC goalkeeper Brennan Klein managed to make the save. He finished the game leading the ACC with 53 saves in 16 starts.
“Brennan’s a special goalkeeper,” BC head coach Bob Thompson said after the game. “We know that he has teams already looking at him to play professionally. He’s definitely going to get an opportunity, and he deserves that.”
After Bejar’s shot and subsequent goal-line clearance from Ruvalcaba, the rest of the half came and went with neither team able to create a goal-scoring opportunity.
The Eagles started the second half with two shots in the opening five minutes from Leo Guarino and Bejar. SMU answered quickly, though, drawing three consecutive corners and capping off the third one with a goal 53:40 into the match.
The ball, curled in by Kyran Chambron Pinho, found the head of Mustangs captain Bailey Sparks, who directed the ball in at the near post, putting SMU up 1–0. The Mustangs didn’t look back from there, as Sparks forced two more saves from Klein at the 72:00 and 73:12 marks.
“One corner kick goal,” Thompson said. “The difference was just that. I thought we probably created an equal amount of quality chances as they did.”
BC tried to turn things around in the final few minutes, starting with a Michael Asare shot that deflected out for an Eagles corner with 6:33 remaining. The corner came up empty, but Guarino quickly drew another one after his shot deflected just wide of the SMU goal at the 85:36 mark.
That corner also came up empty, and time expired, putting an end to BC men’s soccer’s season.
“I definitely see [the season] as a huge success,” Thompson said. “We doubled the wins, finished above .500, and we’re playing in the best conference in the country.”
As Thompson’s fifth season leading the Eagles came to a close, he had one last message for the team.
“The only thing I would say to definitely put in there is just how proud I am of the group,” Thompson said. “They took a massive step forward this year, and it’s just been because of the character and culture of this group. It’s an incredible, incredible, incredible group of young men, and it’s been a pleasure working with them.”
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