{"id":14776,"date":"2012-08-14T19:47:06","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T23:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=14776"},"modified":"2012-08-14T19:56:14","modified_gmt":"2012-08-14T23:56:14","slug":"eagles-attack-key-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=14776","title":{"rendered":"Eagles Attack Key to Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BC striker Charlie Rugg (right) battles New England Revolution defender Darrius Barnes in a February exhibition match at Gillette Stadium. (Photo: Chris Aduama\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

In college soccer it\u2019s the norm that a team loses some of its offensive fire power with each graduating class. For Boston College, that\u2019s not the case for the 2012 season.<\/p>\n

After a 14-6-1 season that saw the Eagles enter the NCAA Tournament as a number one seed, BC returns its key attacking trio of seniors Kyle Bekker and Charlie Rugg and sophomore Diego Medina-Mendez. The three each scored a team leading eight goals apiece in 2011 and combined for 24 of the Eagles 35 goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiego was a freshman and is a sophomore this year, while me and [Bekker] our in our senior season, so we\u2019re looking to go out with a bang,\u201d said Rugg, a Roslindale, Mass, native. \u201cI think we can expect a lot of goals from our attacking side this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Eagles tri-taloned attack was on full display in 14th ranked Boston College\u2019s preseason opener, a 2-0 win over Syracuse<\/a><\/span> on Monday. Bekker, who also led the team with seven assists in addition to his eight goals last year, led the charge with a free kick goal and a creative back heel to set up Rugg for the Eagles\u2019 second goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love playing with [Bekker],\u201d said Rugg, who was second on the squad with five assists last season on top of his eight goals. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed playing with him the last three years because he always sees the runs I\u2019m making and he always anticipates. He\u2019s got great vision, so it\u2019s a forwards dream to play with someone like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Rugg showed his speed and strength on his goal, Medina-Mendez \u2013 who scored in a 2-1 loss in a February exhibition<\/a><\/span> with the New England Revolution \u2013 also came close with a chance of his own only to see it deflected wide by a defender. The trio certainly didn\u2019t show much rust.<\/p>\n

That lack of rust in many cases comes from several BC players\u2019 participation in the USL PDL. Rugg played for the Worcester Hydra \u2013 along with BC defenders Chris Ager, Colin Murphy, and Nick Corliss \u2013 this summer where he tallied two goals and added two assists in just five games.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying games throughout the summer is vital for coming into preseason flying,\u201d said Rugg. \u201cI\u2019m glad to have that opportunity to play over the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Eagles also got an unwanted reality check in the win over Syracuse when Bekker and Rugg went down with injuries. Bekker\u2019s injury appeared minor, while Rugg\u2019s looked potentially more serious, though he\u2019s hopeful to be back for the season opener. Even if Rugg returns quickly, it was a reminder of how quickly the season outlook could change for BC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Charlie is not up there, we could have a problem for sure,\u201d said head coach Ed Kelly. \u201cWe would miss him a lot, but we\u2019ll wish for the best and hope that he\u2019s OK and that it\u2019s not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those injuries left Kelly hesitant to make a prediction on where the Eagles will end up this season knowing an injury to any of his stars could derail their hopes of a deep tournament run.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea [how far we can go],\u201d said Kelly. \u201cI really don\u2019t. We\u2019re light in numbers and there are some senior guys that \u2013 we don\u2019t really have a backup for Charlie or [Bekker] and that kind of stuff. But that\u2019s true for any team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we lose a couple of special guys we\u2019re in trouble, but we\u2019ll deal with it and move on. Just like any season we\u2019ve got to be lucky and stay away from injuries and try to progress the play before you get those injuries. You\u2019ll always pick up an injury, but it would be nice to get a good start without them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, with the Eagles\u2019 high powered attack returning and a solid defense backstopped by senior goalkeeper Justin Luthy, who finished 2011 with a 1.22 goals against average, it\u2019s hard to put a limit on just how far a healthy BC team could go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with this team, the sky\u2019s the limit,\u201d said Rugg. \u201cWe were a one seed last year and our team\u2019s ten times better this year I think. I think you can expect great things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all three top scorers from 2011 returning, goals shouldn\u2019t be a problem for Boston College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[33,104],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/ruggfeature2.jpg?fit=490%2C240&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14776"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14783,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14776\/revisions\/14783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}