Boston, N.J. Battle to 0-0 Draw

Boston Victory and the New Jersey Rangers had to settle for a scoreless stalemate on Saturday. (Photo: Boston Victory SC)

The Boston Victory defense kept the New Jersey Rangers off the board for the second time during the preseason, but the attack failed to capitalize during Saturday’s 0-0 draw in Easton, Mass.

Boston’s goalkeeping tandem of Vinny Papageorgiou and Jason Katz matched wits with Rangers’ keeper Carl Spence to keep the sheets clean. Saturday’s game was a rematch of a Mar. 10 game that Boston claimed a 1-0 victory in Newark, N.J.

“I saw some positives and some negatives and there is a long way to go still,” Boston head coach Sergio Taborda said in a statment. “But we still have a month until the season kicks off.”

One thing that certainly didn’t benefit Boston was the loss of Zico Veiga in the 20th minute after he collided with Spence and had to be taken off due to a shoulder injury.

But even without Veiga, Boston was far from done. In the 45th minute, Marc Djessouho and Lucas Pessanha linked up before Spence made the stop to keep it level at the half.

Taborda ordered a series of changes to the Boston personnel in the second half and it almost opened the door to the game winner late.

Ten minutes from time, Dave DeMello went down the left wing and put a shot on frame before it was tipped over the bar. Moments later, former Revolution midfielder Andrew Sousa, who made his Boston Victory debut Saturday, had his shot pushed away from frame.

New Jersey’s Alex Brito received a red card late for kicking the ball away in frustration after protesting an apparent non-call.

Although Boston had its chances, it wasn’t enough to break through and get a win. Even so, Tarborda remained optimistic about his club’s form going forward.

“I believe that with the quality we have, we should be scoring more and we will be working at training this week on putting that right,” Taborda said. “We have some new players on the team who are still adapting and we have some work to do.”

Boston will return to action on Apr. 21 for a preseason match against Junior Lone Star FC (NPSL) at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy, Mass. Game time is set for 7pm.