Boston College Athletics
Men's Soccer NCAA Tournament First-Round Preview: Brown
November 17, 2010 | Men's Soccer
Nov. 17, 2010
Boston College vs. Brown
2010 NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship - First-Round Match
Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010 - 7 p.m.
Stevenson Field, Providence, R.I.
Free Video Coverage: www.brownbears.com
Team Records: Boston College - 10-4-5; Brown - 11-3-3
2010 NCAA Men's Soccer Interactive Bracket
BOSTON COLLEGE EARNS FOURTH STRAIGHT NCAA BID: Boston College will play at Brown University on Thursday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Division I Championship. The Eagles earned an at-large bid to the single-elimination national tournament for the fourth straight season and for the eighth time in the last 11 years after finishing the season with a 10-4-5 record and advancing to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament ... Brown athletics will offer free video and audio for the Thursday's NCAA soccer game against Boston College. Fans can access the video for the game via the multimedia page on www.Brownbears.com.
BC IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: The 2010 NCAA Tournament marks the fourth straight season and 10th time overall the Eagles have earned an NCAA Championship berth. Head coach Ed Kelly has led BC to nine (of its 10) NCAA Tournament appearances, earning berths in 1990, 2000, `01, `02, `04, `07, `08, `09 and `10. Former coach Ben Brewster led BC to its first tournament appearance in 1982. BC has a 6-9 all-time record in tournament play.
GLANCING BACK AT THE 2009 NCAA TOURNAMENT: The Eagles earned one (of 27) at-large berths to the NCAA Championship last fall. BC defeated Dartmouth in overtime in first-round action on Isaac Taylor's golden goal and earned a 1-0 win at No. 13 seed St. John's to advance to the round of 16 before it fell to Drake at home, 6-4.
2010 Boston College Men's Soccer Roster
ROSTER BREAKDOWN
By Class:
SENIORS (4): Dave Dale (Eagan, Minn.), Myles Gerraty (Nutley, N.J.), Ayotunde Ogunbiyi (Gwynedd, Md.), Karl Reddick (Pottstown, Pa.)
JUNIORS (4): Edvin Worley (Jensen Beach, Fla.), Conor Fitzpatrick (Coventry, Conn.), Patrick Chin (Arcadia, Calif.), Amit Aburmad (Zofim, Israel)
SOPHOMORES (8): Stefan Carter (Wheatley Heights, N.Y.), Kyle Bekker (Oakville, Ontario), Sacir Hot (Fair Lawn, N.Y.), Justin Luthy (Dublin, Ohio), Kevin Mejia (Pasadena, Calif.), Charlie Rugg (Roslindale, Mass.), Colin Murphy (Onehunga, New Zealand), Isaac Taylor (Ashton, Md.)
FRESHMEN (8): Chris Ager (Gjettum, Norway), Gregg Bryer (Cape Town, South Africa), Nico Capetola (Manhasset, N.Y.), Henry Bunkall (Pasadena, Calif.), John Bunkall (Pasadena, Calif.), Ryan Dunn (Hampton, N.H.), Jamie Doherty (Mansfield, Mass.), Cameron Stoker (Holden, Mass.)
Hometown in:
United States - 19; California (4), Connecticut (1), Florida (1), Maryland (1), Massachusetts (3), Minnesota (1), New Jersey (2), New Hampshire (1), New York (2), Ohio (1), Pennsylvania (2); Canada - 1; Israel - 1; New Zealand - 1; Norway - 1; South Africa - 1.
Average Age (as of 9/1): 20 yrs., 1 month
Most Games Played: 79 (Karl Reddick)
Most Games Started: 72 (Karl Reddick)
QUICK HITS
• Boston College finished the 2010 regular-season with a 9-3-5 record, including a 7-1-1 record against non-conference opponents, suffering its lone defeat at No. 3 Connecticut on Sept. 28.
• Of the 12 Boston College players that have registered more than 10 starts in 2010, one - M Karl Reddick (15 starts) - is a senior; four are juniors - M Conor Fitzpatrick (19 starts), M Amit Aburmad (18 starts), D Patrick Chin (17 starts) and F Edvin Worley (13 starts); six are sophomores - M Kyle Bekker (19 starts), GK Justin Luthy (19 starts), F Charlie Rugg (19 starts), M/D Colin Murphy (18 starts), D Sacir Hot (12 starts) and D Kevin Mejia (10 starts); and one - D Chris Ager (14 starts) - is a freshman.
• Four players - M Kyle Bekker, M Conor Fitzpatrick, GK Justin Luthy and F Charlie Rugg - have started all 19 games this season.
• Junior Conor Fitzpatrick has started 60 of Boston College's 61 games over his three seasons. Sophomore Kyle Bekker has started all 40 games in the Eagle midfield in the last two seasons.
• With its 1-0 ACC Tournament win over No. 19 Duke on Wednesday, Nov. 10, Boston College improved its 2010 record to 10-3-5, capturing a double-digit win total for the eighth time in the last 11 seasons.
• The Eagles scored the game's lone goal in the first half in the quarterfinals against No. 19 Duke, marking the fifth time in nine games against league opponents that the team has scored first and led 1-0 at halftime. BC also scored the game's first goal and led at the half in a 1-1 tie against Maryland (Sept. 10), a 1-1 tie against No. 3 North Carolina (Oct. 15), a 1-1 tie against No. 8 Virginia (Oct. 22) and a 4-3 loss at Wake Forest (Oct. 30).
• Junior Amit Aburmad, who netted his fourth goal of the season in the team's 1-0 win over No. 19 Duke, has three decisive scores this fall. The Zofim, Israel, native also scored game-winning goals in a 2-1 win over Harvard (Oct. 19) and a 2-1 win over Dartmouth (Oct. 27). Aburmad leads all BC players with seven assists.
• Freshman fullback Gregg Bryer started his second match of the season (and played all 90 minutes) in the team's 1-0 ACC quarterfinal victory over No. 19 Duke. The 5-foot-11, 165-pound native of Cape Town, South Africa also started the team's 3-0 non-league win over Holy Cross on Oct. 12. He has played in eight matches.
• BC went unbeaten on its home turf - the Newton Campus Field - this fall, notching a 6-0-3 record, including a 5-0-0 record against non-league opponents.
• Boston College played to a draw in four (of eight) ACC games this fall, equaling its five-year combined total of ties since joining the conference in July 2005 in one season.
• The Eagles have outscored their opponents 17-6 in the first half of play and 15-14 in the second half of play.
• The team neither allowed a goal nor scored itself in five games that advanced to overtime (golden goal) play in 2010. That's 100 minutes of sudden-death competition.
• Boston College is 1-3-3 in six matches against opponents that were ranked among the nation's top 20 by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Most recently, the Eagles fell to No. 4 North Carolina, 1-0, on Friday, Nov. 12. The team earned a 1-0- ACC Tournament win over No. 19 Duke on Wednesday, Nov. 10. In regular-season competition, the Eagles and three league opponents - No. 9 Maryland (Sept. 10), No. 3 North Carolina (Oct. 15) and No. 8 Virginia (Oct. 22) - played to a 1-1 draw. BC suffered road losses at No. 11 Duke (Sept. 24) and No. 3 Connecticut (Sept. 28).
• Freshman center back Chris Ager was named the 27th recipient of the prestigious Thomas McElroy Award, an annual scholarship presented to the Boston College soccer student-athlete who best exemplifies the qualities that made Tom such a special person. Tom McElroy, Jr., a goalkeeper, was diagnosed with cancer in January 1979 and played his senior season through treatments and recuperation, helping to guide Boston College to a 3-1 victory over Bridgeport in ECAC Championship on Nov. 23, 1980. Tom McElroy succumbed to cancer on July 17, 1981 at age 22. He was inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame on Oct. 23, 1987, the first men's soccer player to earn the distinction.
• Freshman center back Chris Ager, a second-semester freshman from Gjettum, Norway, is fluent in four languages - Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and English. Sophomore Sacir Hot, also a center back, speaks three languages - English, Spanish and Serbian.
• Two-time Boston College All-America midfielder Alejandro Bedoya, who graduated in December 2008 and currently plays for Orebro in Sweden, is one of 18 players who competed for the U.S. national team in the 2010 Nelson Mandela Challenge against South Africa on Nov. 17 in Cape Town.
THE BROWN SERIES: Thursday's match will be the 26th meeting between the two schools, yet the first in NCAA Tournament competition. BC is 10-12-3 against Brown in the series, including a 9-6-2 record under head coach Ed Kelly.
THE LAST MEETING: (Brown 1, Boston College 0 - Sept. 23, 2008 in Newton, Mass.) - Senior Rhett Bernstein knocked a loose ball inside the 18-yard box into the net for the game's only goal as Brown defeated No. 13 Boston College, 1-0, in non-league action at the Newton Campus Soccer Complex. The visiting Bears capitalized on a corner kick taken by Darren Howerton in the 48th minute. It was one of five Bear corners taken in the second half. Host Boston College finished the game with a 20-9 advantage in shots, yet totaled three shots on Brown sophomore goalkeeper Paul Grandstrand, who captured his first victory of the season. Of the Eagles 20 shots, eight were blocked by the Brown defense before reaching the goal and a ninth caromed off the post and out of bounds. BC enjoyed is finest scoring chance in the 84th minute. Just less than two minutes after entering the match, Mor Avi Hanan unleashed a left-footed strike from 22 yards from the far right side that ricocheted off left post and out of bounds back on the right side. In the 87th minute, Alejandro Bedoya was hauled down just outside 18 yards that resulted in an Avi Hanan direct kick was blocked. Mario Uribe attempted a game-high six shots in the match, while Bedoya finished with four. A total of 26 fouls were called -- 15 on Brown and 11 on Boston College. BC goalkeeper Chris Brown registered three saves in net.
RUGG, BEKKER, AGER EARN ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS: Three players - forward Charlie Rugg, midfielder Kyle Bekker and defender Chris Ager - have each earned 2010 All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors. Rugg captured all-conference first-team recognition, Bekker earned all-league second-team honors and Ager garnered All-Freshmen Team accolades. A Roslindale, Mass., resident, Rugg played in and started all 17 regular-season games as a sophomore in 2010. For the second straight season, the 6-foot, 175-pound forward led the team in scoring with 18 points - a team-high eight goals and two assists. An Oakville, Ontario, resident, Bekker started all 17 regular-season games as a sophomore in 2010 and has started all 38 games in the Eagle midfield in his two seasons. The 5-foot-9, 160-pound Bekker tallied 10 points - three goals and four assists this fall. A Gjettum, Norway, resident, Ager has started each of the last 12 games as a central defender. He missed the first five games of his freshman campaign and has started each game since.
BC IN THE ACC: Boston College has a 22-18-8 record in six years of regular-season competition in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Eagles have finished among the league's top five teams in each of the last five seasons, producing a combined record of 22-12-6 (.625 win percentage) in regular-season competition during that span. The 2007 Boston College entry captured the league regular-season crown with a 7-1-0 record.
THE KELLY FILE
Years as a head coach: 26
Record: 257-183-49
Years at Boston College: 23
Record: 217-170-43
ACC Record: 22-18-8
ACC Record By Year ...
2005: 0-6-2
2006: 3-3-2
2007: 7-1-0*
2008: 5-3-0
2009: 5-3-0
2010: 2-2-4
* - Regular-season champions
SUSTAINED SUCCESS: Boston College has won 10 or more games 12 times in its 23 years of soccer under head coach Ed Kelly. Boston College has won at least 10 games eight times in the last 11 seasons. The Eagles captured a school-record 18 wins during the 2002 season.
TWITTER UPDATES: Live in-game news updates, in short form, on Boston College men's soccer are available through Twitter at: http://twitter.com/BCSportsNews
