Column: PKs Prove Too Much For BC Men

Once in a while, a sporting event has the ability to sweep the audience off its collective feet and take them on an emotional roller coaster that is just as likely to deposit them in a state of unbearable despair as it is to induce visions of ecstasy and glory. In these instances, finding words to describe what you just witnessed can, and in this case is, nearly impossible.

In Newton yesterday, the Boston College men's soccer team played a part in one of these games. There can be no perfect way to capture the events of this match beyond the box score. A loss for words will not do justice for a game that produced such pronounced highs and lows. The underdog Rutgers Scarlet Knights were able to come to BC's turf and do what only two other teams had done this season: beat the Eagles at home.

But the real storyline was not simply that Rutgers advanced. It was how they did it. They toyed with the emotions of the hundreds who flocked to Newton by letting the Eagles come within three minutes and thirty seconds of victory, before cruelly forcing the game into overtime.

Overtime was another emotional tug-of-war in which both teams had chances for victory, but the game was destined to be decided in penalty kicks. As is the roulette-like nature of penalties, Rutgers reversed the fortunes of the entire 110 minutes of play, dominating BC both from the spot and in goal, where keeper Kevin McMullen was the hero.

The swing of events was striking, cloaking the field in a blanket of silence that was pierced only by the euphoric celebrations from the Rutgers sideline. Even BC head coach Ed Kelly was at a loss when asked to describe his team's final moments of the 2011 season.

"There's nothing to say," Kelly said. "We thought that we had them and that we were the better team. It was a tough one. It's a horrible way to lose a game. To dominate the game and lose on penalties, it's sickening. Hopefully, it never ends like this for us again."

Sickening. Awful. Horrible. Devastating. Kelly's adjectives hardly do justice to the look he wore. His dejection was mirrored by the vacant faces of nearly all of his players, as they lay splayed out across the turf, trying to come to terms with what transpired.

There can and should be no mistaken impressions about this game. BC was the better team, outshooting Rutgers 17-10. It was not just the amount of opportunities but also the quality of them that would seem to point to the Eagles as the superior of the two. On the attack, the likes of Charlie Rugg and Kyle Bekker were dangerous all day, while Ryan Dunn and Chris Ager looked impenetrable at the back.

Accordingly, in his postgame interview, Rutgers head coach Dan Donigan had more praise for his opponent then for his own squad.

"We feel very fortunate to come out of here with a result," Donigan said. "They're an exceptional team. They're well-coached, disciplined, and talented. It's unfortunate that it's a cruel game, and my hat goes off to BC."

In his praise of the Eagles, Donigan inadvertently gave the best summary of the afternoon. Soccer is, as he put it, "a cruel game." This match serves as the embodiment of an oft-abused sports adage, "That's why they play the game." All was progressing according to plan for 86 and a half minutes, when an ugly Rutgers goal turned conventional wisdom on its head.

This all goes to show that there is no rhyme or reason to sports. All you can do is try to rationalize what you've just seen and move on. No, it does not seem fair that the final image for the 2011 Eagles will be of senior Steve Rose collapsing in agony after depositing his penalty kick into the arms of the Rutgers keeper, but that's sports.

It's an implied risk that every fan and player assumes when they associate themselves with the spectacle, as the outcome can be equal parts cruel and elating. There is always a winner and a loser, and on Sunday it just so happened that the underdog came out on the winning end.

Wearing the same incredulous look as his players, Kelly offered the perfect descriptor of the positive and negative potential of sport and soccer, when he repeated over and over, "It is what it is."

And nobody who was at Sunday's game would argue with that.