Men's soccer sees season end

Heading into South Orange, NJ, the Boston College men's soccer team knew that it would advance to the Big East tournament with a win, thanks to a Villanova loss to Notre Dame on the previous evening. The Eagles were unable to capitalize on the opportunity, falling to the postseason bound Pirates of Seton Hall (8-4-4; 5-2-3) 3-1 on Saturday afternoon at Owen T. Carroll Field.

"Our tournament started [on Saturday] and we needed to win," said senior back and co-captain Paul Chase.

BC came out with a little different look in the match hoping to ignite its offensive play.

"We went out there looking to score goals, which has been a problem all year," said junior co-captain Bill Arnault. "So we switched things up hoping we'd be able to produce some more offense." BC had mustered only an average of less than one goal per game going into the match with the Pirates.

The Eagles (6-7-3; 3-5-2) had yet to win a game in which they yielded the first goal, as they were 0-5-1 in those games. So it did not bode well when, in the ninth minute, reigning Big East co-offensive player of the week Jerrod Laventure directed a Matt Salotti cross past senior goalkeeper Mike Cardenas, giving SHU a 1-0 lead.

That 1-0 score held up into halftime, but not much longer. It took only 60 seconds into the second half for the Eagles to knot the game at one. Junior back Pat Haggerty scored the Eagles' lone tally off a header by Adam Pfeifer, who had redirected a Chase corner kick in the 47th minute.

The Eagles owned the run of play for the next 20 minutes until the momentum was pulled out from beneath them, when Arnault was temporarily sent off for improper shin guards, forcing the Eagles to play a man down. Moments later, as the midfielder was waiting to return to the pitch, Salotti scored the eventual game-winner, slotting it past Cardenas from six yards out. The Pirates had created a good build-up leading to the 69th-minute tally.

Head coach Ed Kelley let his feelings be known concerning the cause of the goal and was dually ejected by the referee for his protest.

"Obviously we got pretty upset. It was probably the most ridiculous thing I've seen playing soccer," said Chase, who also earned a red card from the incident.

Chase mentioned that the referee told him before the game that he wanted shin guards on and covered, but never checked each team's.

"It's their job to do that before the game and they didn't. He still had shin guards on so I can't imagine why [the referee] sent him off," said Chase. "The referee robbed us."

"I've worn the same pair of shin guards for all three years I've played college ball," said Arnault. "Never before has there been a problem."

Despite proving that he had covered shin guards on, he was sent off and the damage was done. "At that point in time we had the momentum," he said, "and this whole thing happened."

Following the equipment issue and Seton Hall's second goal, the Eagles were unable to get back into the game. They watched any hope of the post-season disintegrate when Dan Pires put a rebound in, giving the Pirates a commanding 3-1 lead in the 85th minute.

Although BC earned more corner kicks in the game, six to Seton Hall's two, the Pirates put more shots on frame by a count of nine to six and earned the 3-1 victory. Even with BC giving up the three goals, Cardenas made six saves that kept the Eagles in the game for almost the entire match.

For seniors like Chase the loss was especially tough but he found some positives from this season. "The time you spend with all the guys and the friendships you form," he said. "I guess you could take that away from this year."

Arnault feels that he and the other returning players need to take a different approach to next season. "After all of the success we had last year, we came out with such high expectations," he said. "I think coming in you have to tone down your expectations. Set realistic goals and try to repeat what you did last year instead of setting your goals too high."