Undaunted, Undeterred and Undefeated

You'll have to excuse Allison Foley if she was a little bit pragmatic before Sunday. Her Boston College Eagles were 9-0 with seven shutouts, and confidence brimmed into an afternoon match against No. 7 Florida State. But this was the ACC, and there is always that little bit of a holdout on what happens in conference games.

"We played some good non-conference games," she said. "Texas Tech is a Top 20 team, so that was definitely a strong challenge (won by BC, 1-0). I thought we were in a good place (by ACC play). We had a starting 11 with good players off the bench, but there's that unknown until you play a Top 10 team. I knew we could do it, but I wondered how we would do in 90 minutes. You always ask yourself how it looks until you play."

Consider the question answered. Gaby Carreiro and Jenna Bike scored in the second half against the Seminoles, lifting the Eagles over FSU for the second time in three seasons with a 2-1 result. For BC, it was a watershed moment as the team matched a 35-year record for starts to a season. It also likely pushed the program inside the United Soccer Coaches national poll after receiving votes in last week's numbers.

"It's a huge confidence booster," Foley said. "The team had been so bought in all year and so diligent, so a result like this is a reflection of their hard work and discipline. It definitely helps in recruiting. Results like this have an effect there, so there's a lot of good that can come out of it when you win a big game.

"(FSU head coach Mark Krikorian) is a good friend of mine," she said. "I have as much respect for him and his program as anyone. It takes a lot to break down Florida State. They're well-coached and well-organized. They have excellent talent. We don't take it for granted, that's for sure."

It's the latest mark for a team that's been utterly dominant to start 2018. The Eagles are over halfway through an 18-game campaign that began in early August with a 4-1 exhibition victory over Penn State. When the regular season kicked off two weeks later against Quinnipiac, there was no way of knowing that a 4-2 result would become the only match to this point with multiple goals allowed.

In fact, there was no way of knowing BC wouldn't allow another goal for almost another month. The Eagles recorded shutouts in their next six appearances on a pitch, a span of almost 650 minutes. And even then, Temple's goal in the 60th minute came when the Owls trailed by two and as part of a 4-1 shellacking that earned Foley her 275th career win.

But it's not just the defense. BC is outscoring teams by a 26-4 margin with an attack averaging 2.6 goals per game. The Eagles double up their opponents shot opportunities with 15.4 shots per game, of which over 41% are on net.

Sam Coffey has turned into one of the ACC's best overall players, and her five goals and nine assists leads all conference scorers. Teammates Olivia Vaughn and Gianna Mitchell are tied with Coffey for goals scored, three behind Louisville's Maisie Whitsett. It combines with resurgent players like Gaby Carreiro and bench presences like Carly Leipzig to create a perfect storm of goal threats.

"Sam is our set piece specialist," Foley said. "If it's a corner kick or a serve into the box or scoring from the edge of the box, she's a weapon and a half. It gives you hope every single game because those tighter games need players who can grab momentum and do something with it. But Carly Leipzig has three goals off our bench, Riley Lochhead has three assists. Gaby Carreiro and Jenna Bike scored against FSU. So, it comes from different people, and that's great as a coach to see different people get involved."

If the win did anything, it took the veil off the Eagles in the ACC. BC is the only undefeated team left in the ACC, and it's the first to 10 overall wins in the season. The Eagles are one of three teams without a conference loss to start the season, but they have a game in hand over Louisville and North Carolina, who are tied with nine points at the top of the table. So as dominant as the team has been, the road ahead will only get tougher.

This week, BC has two games on the road, including a rescheduled trip to Tobacco Road to play Wake Forest. This weekend's trip at Clemson will likely be against a team looking to jump into the top three in the conference, as a well as a game against a team that will not have played in exactly one week.

The games are also BC's first outside of Massachusetts. Every game has been in the Commonwealth since the exhibition at Penn State, and more specifically, the Eagles haven't left Boston. They've played two road games - at Northeastern and at Harvard - with the remaining games played on home turf in Newton.

"There are no secrets anymore," Foley said. "We're getting on the road for our first flight. We've been really local with all of our matches at home, so there's a lot of value (in traveling). Everyone's looking forward to a five-day trip, getting into some hotels and having that time together. I find that there's a little more control in there, and there's less distraction than there is on a college campus. So, everyone's really excited to get away and a get a trip into a different part of the country."

Boston College will take on Wake Forest tonight at 7 in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Eagles will then travel to Clemson to play the Tigers on Sunday, also at 1 p.m. Both matches can be found on the ACC Network Extra available through the ESPN family of networks.

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Players Mentioned

Jenna Bike

Gaby Carreiro

Sam Coffey

Carly Leipzig

Riley Lochhead

Gianna Mitchell

Olivia Vaughn