ALLSTON, Mass. – Highlighted by senior Quin DeLaMater’s first-career three-point performance, the Boston University men’s soccer team pulled out a 3-2 thrilling victory at Harvard in a contest that saw four goals scored in the final 15 minutes of action Tuesday night.
With their fourth 3+ goal performance of the season, the Terriers improve to 6-3-0, while the Crimson drop to 3-3-2 in a matchup of leading-50 NCAA RPI squads. Both DeLaMater and classmate Aidan Kieffer found the back of the net for the first time, and senior Ethan Gill earned his team-leading third goal.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Crimson earned the game’s first corner kick in the sixth minute, but senior keeper Sheraz Saadat was in position to slash a header attempt.
- BU took its first shot at 10:43 when DeLaMater flicked with his extended foot junior Lapo Romieri’s curling free kick into the box past the keeper for the 1-0 lead.
- The Terriers earned a pair of corners in the 20th minute but were unable to connect.
- Lucian Wood made an impressive diving slash on senior Diego Rived’s 20-yard blast at 41:34 and then helped the backline defend against two more corners to keep the deficit at one goal entering the locker room.
- In the second half, the Crimson upped their energy and began to apply more pressure on the Terriers, first earning a corner at 52:37 and then forcing Saadat to make a slash seconds later.
- After Wood made a slash at 67:35 on sophomore Pharis Petrica’s shot attempt, Harvard had a quality look in the 70th minute with Saadat preventing Shane Lonergan from scoring on a rebound set up by Andreas Savva’s shot.
- In the 77th minute, sophomore Dylan Williams fed a cross to Gill, who moved around a Crimson defender to blast a shot past Wood for the 2-0 lead.
- Harvard continued to attack the BU backline and finally got on the scoreboard at 79:52 with Savva finding the back of the net.
- Alejandro Palacio needed just two minutes to tie the game at 81:50 for Harvard, but Petrica fed a free kick into the box for Kieffer to put away to pull back ahead, 3-2.
- Saadat added one more slash at 86:14 to seal his second consecutive win after making his first appearance of the year in Saturday’s 3-2 win at No. 24 Bucknell.
GAME NOTES
- BU immediately has 10 Terriers who have scored at least one goal with five earning at least one goal and one assist. Both Petrica and Romieri are tied for the team lead at eight points (2G,4A).
- The Terriers edged Harvard in shots, 13-12, after the Crimson took 10 in the second half. BU doubled Harvard in corner kicks, 6-3.
- BU snapped a four-game winless streak (0-2-2) against Harvard after last winning in 2019 at home while also halting a five-game winless streak (0-3-2) at Jordan Field. BU previously won on the road in 2011 with a 2-1 victory.
- The Terriers scored three goals against Harvard for the first time since a 3-0 home victory in 2015 and last accomplished the feat on the road in 1994 (3-2).
UP NEXT
- The Terriers will return home to host Loyola Maryland on Sunday (Oct. 5) at 1 p.m. with the all-time series tied, 5-5-4.
- BU is on a three-game unbeaten streak at 2-0-1 following last year’s 2-2 draw in Baltimore.
- Two years ago at Nickerson Field, the Terriers scored three goals over the final 18 minutes to earn a 3-1 victory.
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