Focusing on The Other Football

With the football team off this weekend, my focus turns to BC's soccer teams. I'll be at the women's game vs. Stony Brook tomorrow night at 7. After that, I'll try to catch the end of the BC @ Maryland men's game (start time: 8 PM) on ACC Select.

The Maryland game is an intriguing one - it's BC's first ACC matchup of the year after an up-and-down start to the non-conference slate. Maryland, coming off a 5th place finish in the ACC a year ago, is currently 3-1. BC is 2-1-1 after a tie against St. John's on Sunday.

The women finish the weekend with a Sunday afternoon tilt against Central Connecticut State at 1 PM in Newton.

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Meanwhile, my colleague and confidante Grant Salzano, a native of the New Haven area, will be at tomorrow night's BC @ Yale women's volleyball game and will report back with pictures. Thanks Grant!

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On the gridiron, there are a few interesting games to keep an eye on. The first one took place tonight ,as UNC dropped a bomb on hapless Rutgers, bringing me much delight. The only thing that could make me happier is if UVA somehow gets it together and beats UConn in Storrs on Saturday. You never know...

Maryland hosts a ranked opponent, #23 Cal, Saturday at noon. We'll have to hold our nose and root for TOBy as NC State travels to Clemson, while Georgia Tech heads to Lane Stadium to battle Virginia Tech in a game that will tell us a lot about the status of both teams. If GT entertains any ideas of making a run to Tampa, they need to make a statement in this game.

Toilet Bowl game of the week: Duke vs. Navy!


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Non-sports news: '08 BC grad Mark Desrosiers and his outstanding band, This Blue Heaven (official website), took part in this week's Boston Music Festival and hope to get enough votes to advance to the final performance at City Hall Plaza. Head over to ourstage.com and sign up for an account [it takes five seconds]. Then, go to http://www.ourstage.com/fanclub/thisblueheaven and click 'Become a fan' to vote for them to advance.

Eagles take action... :)

-JG

Disappointing

Well, that sucked. I've given it a few hours to wear off, but still... it stings. I can't really think coherently about the game just yet.

Our defense was amazing today - forcing three turnovers and shutting down a number of promising Georgia Tech possessions to keep us in the game. Unfortunately, our offense was incapable of sustaining drives long enough to spell the defense - and that spelled doom, as the defense was clearly too worn down at the end to make those last few stops.

Let's be honest - Crane sucked. He was all over the place, and made a number of really questionable decisions to go along with his inaccurate throws. And Steve Aponavicius's missed chip shot field goal at the end of the first half now looms large in my mind.

I guess if there's one thing I would have changed, it would be to keep pounding it on the ground when BC had the ball right after Georgia Tech's go-ahead touchdown. Chris Crane had one play where he rolled right and had a clear running lane, but he aired it out and overthrew Rich Gunnell to set up fourth down.

Josh Haden was injured in the second quarter and he was sorely missed for the rest of the game; inside handoffs to McCluskey on 3rd-and-5 weren't really ideal.

The team now has two weeks to lick their wounds and load up to face UCF. The offense obviously needs a lot of work. Let's hope they can figure it out, or it's gonna be a long year.

BC women's soccer crushes Brown, 3-0

Wow - fresh off a tough defeat at the hands of Stanford on Sunday, the women's soccer team looked incredibly impressive this afternoon in a 3-0 drubbing of Brown to improve their record to 3-1 on the season.

There was a very nice crowd on hand, with a ton of kids - more kids than I've ever seen at a BC soccer game - and BC athletics did a great job, hosting a kids game at halftime and giving away "We are BC" drawstring bags to all fans in attendance. They have definitely stepped up their presence at soccer games so far this season, and for that I am very grateful. It appears that the athletic department is taking the marketing part of their job far more seriously this year; let's hope it yields results in the form of increased fan support.

The game itself was Eagle domination, start to finish. BC was faster, stronger, craftier, hungrier - Brown could do nothing, really. Brown had two very good chances on goal, one in each half, and freshman keeper Jillian Mastroeinni tipped both aside with nice saves.

On the other side, Brown keeper Breanna Hogue was helpless against a 15-shot BC attack. Caroline Walden scored the first goal, ripping a long, low shot from outside the box that rolled into the corner of the net, past an outstretched Hogue; she was screened on the shot and didn't jump for it until the last second.

Goal number two was a work of art - Kelly Henderson slipped it past a defender on the left wing to Alaina Beyar, who outran the defense and knocked the ball past Hogue. Gina Dimartino had a nice tip-in in front of the net late in the game to put the nail in the coffin.

It was a good day all around: the men's soccer team beat Villanova, 1-0, and the field hockey team beat Quinnipiac, 2-0. Volleyball lost to South Carolina 3-0 in Kingston, RI, the only blemish on the day - hopefully they can bounce back tomorrow as they continue tournament play in the Ocean State.

Photo Gallery: BC men's soccer vs. BU

Good luck to all BC teams competing today! I'll be at the women's soccer game vs. Brown at 5 PM.

Hockey tournament schedule (updated)

The dates are slightly different this year than they have been the past two years.

2/28 - Women's Hockey East Quarterfinals - 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5 (Campus Sites)
3/7-8 - Women's Hockey East Semifinals & Finals (Providence)
3/13-14 - Women's NCAA Regionals (Campus Sites)
3/13-15 - Men's Hockey East Quarterfinals (Campus Sites)
3/20 - Women's Frozen Four (Agganis Arena, BU)
3/20 - Men's Hockey East Semifinals (TD Banknorth Garden)
3/21 - Men's Hockey East Championship (TD Banknorth Garden)
3/22 - Women's National Championship Game (Agganis Arena, BU)
3/27-29 - Men's NCAA Regionals
4/9-11 - Men's Frozen Four (Washington DC)

Tentatively planned road trips for 2008-09

Here's some of the places I'm trying to get to this year...(Tentative)

Football-
Bowl game (God willing). When & where TBA

Men's Hockey-
all Boston road games
10/31 @ Merrimack
11/30 @ Dartmouth
1/2-1/3 @ New Brunswick
1/30 @ Providence
2/14 @ Lowell
2/20 @ UNH
3/27-29 @ NCAA regionals, place TBA
4/9-11 @ NCAA Frozen Four, Washington DC

Women's Hockey-
all Boston road games
10/8 @ UNH
10/25 @ Providence
11/5 @ Dartmouth
11/20 @ UConn
12/5 @ UConn
1/9-1/10 @ St. Lawrence (including St. Lawrence vs. Clarkson men's games)
1/29 @ UNH
2/22 @ Providence
2/27-3/1, Hockey East Tournament in Providence
3/6-3/8, NCAA Regionals, site TBA
3/13-3/15, NCAA Frozen Four @ BU

Men's Basketball
11/24-28, TBA, Preseason NIT (NYC?)
1/27 @ Maryland
March - NCAA tournament in Boston

Women's Basketball
11/18 @ Holy Cross
12/29-30 @ Dartmouth tournament

Men's Soccer
10/14 @ Yale

Really?

The BC men's soccer team lost to Providence yesterday, 1-0. This is quite a surprise. Hopefully they bounce back this weekend, as they take on Villanova and St. John's at the Adidas-Brown Classic in Providence.

The women's basketball team announced their schedule for 2008-2009.

On tap this weekend:

The men's soccer and women's volleyball teams both will participate in tournaments in Rhode Island this weekend, with the volleyballers in Kingston and the men's soccer team in Providence.

Women's soccer has two home games: Friday night at 5 PM vs. Brown, and Sunday afternoon at 1 vs. Toledo.

Field hockey has a pair of road games - at Quinnipiac Friday at 4, and at Holy Cross Sunday at 12.

Also, there's a football game. :)

Up and down

The field hockey team blasted Vermont this afternoon, 4-1.

Out in Palo Alto, CA, the women's soccer team is currently being whooped by #9 Stanford, 3-0, with less than ten minutes remaining in the game.

Women's volleyball took two out of three matches over the weekend to open up their season.

Men's soccer heads to Providence tomorrow to take on PC at 2:00 PM.

A fine start

Tonight's football game didn't have me pounding my chest and belting out "For Boston," but it got the job done. You can never complain when you a) start the season with a win and b) pitch a shutout on defense.

Chris Crane looked to be servicable under center, and he had his moments of excellence. With the exception of one awful forced pass in the red zone that was nearly picked off, Crane made excellent decisions all day. His legs accounted for two of our scores, and he demonstrated some serious arm strength. His accuracy is questionable, but hey - it's game one. In Matt Ryan's first game, BC got thumped by Syracuse in the Worst BC Loss Ever (TM).

Four names that make me smile, which need no further explanation:
-Jeff Smith
-Mark Herzlich
-Ryan Quigley
-Billy Bennett

Seriously, if we can get kicking like that, it will make a huge difference. Our defense was outstanding last year and it had to stop opponents that consistently started at or near the 40 yard line. Giving them an extra 20 yards can only be helpful.

For all of the defense's flaws (missed tackles, a lack of speed, letting the QB get away from near-sacks one too many times), they shut out Kent State and held Eugene Jarvis to a mere 55 yards. Can't complain.

The win capped off an outstanding first week for BC's fall sports teams.

The BC women's soccer team started it off right last Friday night, downing BU 1-0 at Nickerson Field. The men's soccer team equaled their accomplishment, beating the Terriers 2-1 in Newton in my very first attended sporting event of the year.(Photos coming later.) The field hockey team started with a win over UMass, and the women's soccer team went to 2-0 with a win at Oregon State.

Not bad, eh?

On to week two!

Soccer exhibitions & the pre-season NIT

BC men's soccer had its first exhibition game on Monday, taking on Southern Connecticut in Newton. I can't find the result on the BC or SCSU site, but it doesn't really matter anyway.

This weekend, I will be in Toronto, enjoying a brief getaway. I'm excited about this, but disappointed that I will be missing the first real game of the season: women's soccer @ BU on Saturday night.

There will also be two exhibition games at the Heights this weekend: men's soccer vs. Northeastern on Friday, and field hockey vs. Connecticut on Sunday.

In other news, the preseason NIT schedule has been released. BC hosts the east regional on November 16 & 17, taking on Loyola (MD) in the opener; if BC gets past Loyola, they will face the winner of St. John's vs. Cornell.

The semifinals & finals are at MSG on November 26 & 28 - a worthwhile road trip, perhaps, although it would be hard to do in mid-week.

BC women's soccer loses to UConn, 2-1

Recap taken from uconnhuskies.com:

STORRS, Conn. (August 17, 2008) – The University of Connecticut women's soccer team beat Boston College today 2-1 at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium in an exhibition match. The Huskies scored two goals within four minutes of each other to close out the first half with a 2-0 lead. Boston College cut the lead in half 20 minutes into the second half but were unable to get any closer as the Huskies defended the Eagles second half attack.

Boston College had an opportunity to take an early lead 7:10 into the game but an offsides penalty negated what could have been their first goal. UConn's first goal came with 6:51 remaining in the first half. Elise Fugowski (Stockholm, N.J.) looped a pass over two Boston College defenders to Sarah Stanczyk (Grosse Point, Mich.) who powered a shot to the top-left corner of the goal just barely getting by the outstretched hands of BC goalie Sarah Buonomo.

Less than four minutes later, on a cross from the right from Brittany Tegeler (Baldwin, Md.), Fugowski found herself with another goal scoring opportunity. Fugowski's shot found the lower left corner of the goal to put the Huskies up 2-0 right before the half.

Boston College came out firing in the second half as they outshot the Huskies 13-2. But only one of the shots made it into the goal. Kelly Henderson took a shot on goal that hit the post drawing goalie Jessica Dulski out of place. Julia Bouchelle took advantage of the Dulski's misplacement striking the ball into an almost open net. But that was as close as BC got as UConn won the game, 2-1 in regulation.

The Huskies will begin their regular season at home Monday, August 25 against Central Connecticut with a game time start of 7:00 p.m.

BC's Olympians fall shy

BC grad Carrie Howe's USA women's sailing team came up just short of a medal on Sunday, finishing 4th in the women's yngling class. Great Britain won the gold.

Earlier in the week, Charlie Davies made his first appearance for the US soccer team and impressed, instantly adding potency to the US attack with great speed and a nose for the net. Unfortunately, his contributions were too little, too late, as the US lost to Nigeria, 2-1, knocking the Americans out of the tournament.

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The BC women's soccer team opens their season this afternoon at 1 PM with an exhibition against UConn in Storrs, CT.

The men take on Southeastern Connecticut State tomorrow afternoon at 4 PM, and since I'm a very sick person, I will probably be in attendance.