Even after giving up an early goal, Derby Carrillo was confident the St. John’s men’s soccer team would find a way to get the equalizer.
“From the time we first went down, I thought, ‘We’re going to get it, we’ll get opportunities,’ and we did,” the senior goalkeeper said. “I was hoping we’d get that goal, go to overtime, get another one or go to PKs. Hopefully I’d step up and we’d win the game.”
Carrillo was right, to a point. The 13th-seeded Red Storm had their chances, but the tying goal never came. Instead, Karl Reddick’s eighth-minute tally held up and Boston College advanced to the third round of the NCAA tournament with a 1-0 win last night at Belson Stadium.
A year after advancing to the College Cup semifinals, the Johnnies were bounced in the second round, the Eagles snapping a 21-game home unbeaten streak that dated back to Nov. 2007.
“We carried most of the game, but couldn’t really get the real kind of quality, the energy level to get a goal,” St. John’s coach Dave Masur said. “They blocked a bunch of shots, cleared some balls off the line.”
BC (14-8-0) scored the lone goal it needed on a counterattack in the eighth minute. Kyle Bekker found an unmarked Reddick, who settled the low cross and fired the ball past Carrillo from 12 yards. It was Reddick’s first goal of the year.
St. John’s (9-3-9) pushed its numbers forward, but struggled in the attacking third. The closest the Johnnies would come to tying the game was Kyle Hoffer’s goal that was disallowed because of offsides in the 61st minute.
“I was hoping we’d go pretty far,” Carrillo said. “We had a good group this year. I was expecting to go all the way. It’s unfortunate though. That’s soccer for you.”