BOX SCORE

DURHAM, N.H. – The suffocating defense did it again, leading the Boston University women’s soccer team to a 1-0 victory over the University of New Hampshire Sunday afternoon. The Terriers made an early goal stand up and dominated the Wildcats en route to their fifth shutout in six America East contests this season. BU improved to 9-4-4, 5-0-1 in league play, while UNH fell to 7-6-2, 2-3-2. More importantly, the Terriers took a huge step forward toward winning the America East regular season title and clinching home-field advantage in the league tournament. BU leads Maine by one game with two remaining, and several combinations of events can help BU wrap things up next week.

The Terriers struck early on Sunday, capitalizing on the freshman-to-senior combination of Marisha Schumacher-Hodge (Pittsburgh, Pa.) to Melissa Shulman (Huntington, N.Y.). Schumacher-Hodge set up Shulman nicely in the 17th minute, and the senior captain hammered home what would prove to be the decisive goal from 15 yards out. The score was the fifth of the season for Shulman and the 30th of her career. Shulman is now alone in second place on the BU all-time goals scored list, breaking a tie she had held with Christen Dutchka ’98 and Annalisa Rodovsky ’00. Only All-American Deidre Enos ’01 (51) has scored more goals than Shulman in the history of the program. The assist was Schumacher-Hodges second of the season.

After the early score, the BU defense clamped down. Led by a superb backfield of Brooke Bingham (Duxbury, Mass.), Brittany McDonald (Lindenhurst, N.Y.), Ashley Locasale (Glenmoore, Pa.), Erica Lee (Oakton, Va.) and Christina Kim (Fullerton, Calif.), the Terriers prevented the Wildcats from mounting any legitimate scoring chance. BU outshot UNH 18-4 and Terrier keeper Christina Reuter (Madison, Wisc.) was forced to make just one save.

“We really defended well today,” said BU head coach Nancy Feldman. “We had to work for our own chances but we really battened down the hatches defensively and did not allow them to seize any momentum.”

BU is now 7-1-4 in its last 12 games and has allowed just one goal in six America East games – a staggering 0.16 GAA. Reuter improved to 5-1-3 overall and recorded her fourth shutout of the season.

BU returns to action Thursday at Nickerson Field against UMBC. Game time is 4 p.m. The regular-season finale is Sunday at 1 p.m. against Hartford.