Men's Soccer Defeats Huskies As Thompson Stars In Goal
October 2, 2001 | Men's Soccer
Freshman Zak Thompson recorded a shutout in his first collegiate start and Karl Ruegemer and Joachim Kaland provided the game's only scoring as the Terrier men's soccer team blanked Northeastern, 2-0, on Tuesday night (October 2nd) in the America East conference opener for both teams. The match was played at Nickerson Field.
The Terriers are now 5-3-0 overall, while the Huskies slipped to 4-3-0.
Thompson, who had played a total of just 11 minutes in the Terriers' first eight games of the season, started the game in place of the injured Matt Smith. Smith suffered a kidney injury in B.U.'s 1-0 loss to Boston College last Saturday, and he is out indefinitely.
"Zak was certainly the man of the match for us tonight," Terrier head coach Neil Roberts said of his young goalie who was called on to make nine saves for the game.
Of the save total, six came in the second half, and many of the stops were of the sparkling nature.
"He was very composed and stayed calm," said Roberts. "And, that was a very difficult thing to do since this was such an emotional physical game."
There were a total of 50 fouls, 26 against the Terriers, while there were 10 yellow cards, four of which were assessed to the Terriers. "We committed too many fouls," said Roberts. "Many of them came in the second half, and I think they were because of a fatigue factor. We were a step behind Northeastern, because we had played another physical, emotional match against Boston College last Saturday, and Northeastern hasn't played in a week."
Roberts turned his attention back to Thompson.
"We had no idea how he would play at this level because we didn't have any pre-season scrimmages," said the coach. "But, he really handled the ball well, and did a great job."
Ruegemer scored what proved to be the only goal the Terriers would need at the 17:44 mark of the match. He took a pass from Anthony D'Angelo and brought the ball up the left side of the field. Just as he reached the end line, he crossed the ball in front of Northeastern goalie Allan Lewis. Lewis appeared to have made the initial stop, but the ball bounced off his chest into the goal.
"We tell the guys to drive the ball across in front of the goal and something good might happen," said Roberts. "And, that's exactly what happened on Karl's goal."
Kaland scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season on a penalty kick in the 85th minute.
"This was a big win for us because it was in the conference," said Roberts. "We need to pick up points because that's how you are judged. It's how well you do in the conference during the regular season and in the tournament."
