Boston College Athletics
Boston College
Rutgers
Men's Soccer Captures BIG EAST Regular Season Title
November 04, 2002 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 4, 2002
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The No. 16 men's soccer team clinched its second BIG EAST regular season crown Monday, Nov. 4 by holding on for a 3-2 win over Rutgers on a cool, clear evening at Yurcak Field. As the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST Tournament, the Eagles will play No. 8 Providence (7-11-0, 5-5-0 BE) in a quarterfinal match at Newton Campus Soccer Field on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 1 p.m.
Boston College's 24 points on the season are one more than No. 2-ranked St. John's accumulated. The Eagles won their other regular season title in 1995, when they finished 8-1-1 in the BIG EAST.
Up 2-0 at halftime, Boston College (12-4-0, 8-2-0 BE) widened the lead to 3-0 when sophomore Oktay Kilic (University of Heidelberg/Heidelberg, Germany) beat Scarlet Knights goalkeeeper Ricky Zinter on a one-on-one breakaway at 53:57. For Kilic, it is his fourth goal of the season, three of which are gamewinners.
Rutgers would not quit as Josh Gros scored off a rebound 10 minutes later to make it 3-1. Scott Gahagan made things real interesting when he cut the deficit to 3-2 on a blast into the upper left-hand corner of the net from 23 yards out at 78:51.
The Scarlet Knights then launched an all-out assault on the Eagles' goal, but the defense held strong. Rutgers' best scoring opportunity in the final 12 minutes was Chris Karcz's bending shot from the middle of the box with 2:30 left, but it went a couple feet wide of the right post.
The Eagles, who finished the season on a three-game winning streak, jumped out to a 2-0 lead courtesy of tallies from a couple of unlikely sources. First, freshman John Krause (Rivers/Holliston, Mass.) buried a 25-yard shot into the upper left corner at 15:39 for just his second career goal.
Just before the half, junior Paul Chase (Providence College/Weymouth, Mass.) put a corner kick into the box, and sophomore Pat Haggerty (Lawrence/Lawrenceville, N.J.), playing less than 30 miles from his hometown, found the back of the net for the first time in his career. Haggerty's goal, the only one in the game on which there was an assist, came at 43:20.
Fifth-year keeper Kyle Singer (University of Virginia/Plymouth, Minn.) made eight saves, his second-highest total of the season, while Zinter stopped three shots.
Rutgers held a huge 33-9 advantage - 16-2 in the second half - in the shots department. It also took seven corner kicks to the Eagles' four.
Looking ahead, this is the first year in the Eagles' 25-year history that they did not play the Friars in the regular season. The two teams have never faced each other in the postseason. Boston College owns a 14-5-5 all-time record against Providence, including a 3-2 home win last year on Oct. 17. The last time the Friars beat the Eagles was a 3-1 decision in the first game of the 1999 season.
at Piscataway, N.J.
Boston College (12-4, 8-2 BE)........................2 1 - 3
Rutgers (8-7-3, 5-4-1 BE)............................0 2 - 2
SCORING: BC, John Krause (unassisted) 15:39;
BC, Pat Haggerty (Paul Chase) 43:20;
BC, Oktay Kilic (unassisted) 53:57;
RU, Josh Gros (unassisted) 63:35;
RU, Scott Gahagan (unassisted) 78:51.
SAVES: BC, Kyle Singer 8; RU, Ricky Zinter 3.
