Melas, BC intend to leave an impact this year

BC defender Jamie Melas's self-assessment of his style: ''I guess I'm known for being very ... solid in tackle ... aggressive.'' (PHOTO COURTESY OF BOSTON COLLEGE)

There's a forward somewhere in Virginia who regrets the day he decided to play chicken with Jamie Melas.

Melas specializes in knocking off people's headlights.

Boston College soccer coach Ed Kelly found that out in an exhibition against the Revolution. Kelly barely had a clue who Melas was at that point. The only reason he was on the team was that one of the alumni vouched for him.

Melas hardly played his first season, but by Kelly's timeline, that Revolution scrimmage was when he came out of his shell, if by coming out of his shell you mean pummeling star forward Taylor Twellman.

All Kelly could think was, "Stop kicking him!" But Melas refused to back down. No chicken in him.

That's when Kelly discovered, "If you hold the ball, Jamie Melas is just going to kill you. He's going to crunch you and get the ball."

So, about that defender from Virginia.

"He threw the kid," the way BC forward Alejadro Bedoya recalls, exaggerating but not by much. "Gave up a penalty kick, gave up a goal pretty much, but that kid did not come back in the game."

Melas added under his breath, "He didn't come back for like two months."

"Um, I guess I'm known for being very . . . solid in tackle . . . aggressive," he said.

Atlantic Coast Conference forwards can expect that whenever they try to squeeze between Melas and Idan Shefler in the middle of the backfield. They're the tough guys in the Eagles' back four. The players Kelly said make forwards "hear those footsteps and know that it's not going to be an easy day at the office."

And that's just the middle. The bookends are just as lethal, mostly because their specialties complement each other. On one side, Steve Hepburn is a flypaper defender, and on the other, Paul Gerstenberger is a wolf in a defender's uniform. Last year, he notched a goal and an assist in the same game, more than most defenders get in a season. You don't have to twist his arm to get him to admit he's always on the attack.

It's his specialty.

"We're all our own players," Gerstenberger said. "We just fit together. We each have a style of our own, but when we get in the back court, it's game time. We have our own roles. We know what to do. And we just want to keep a clean sheet at all times."

If a forward manages to hopscotch through that minefield, he'll have 6-foot-5-inch goalie Chris Brown stretching from one post to the other.

The image of it all is what makes Kelly like his odds to repeat as ACC champion this season, which opens tonight against visiting Boston University.

"We know that we can be with anybody in the country with that group," he said.

Pollsters have the Eagles as high as fourth in the nation and third in the nation's toughest conference after a 15-5-1 season (7-1-0 ACC) in which BC seemed destined for a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, only to be stunned in the first round by the University of Massachusetts.

The team that went on to win the national championship was Wake Forest - 22-2-2 Wake Forest. Don't think that second 2 doesn't bother BC.

"When they post the record, every single time that little 2 right there, that's us," Melas said.

Melas's proudest moment last season was holding Wake Forest to one shot on goal in a 1-0 regular-season shutout. They met again in the ACC tournament final, and BC walked away with a 2-1 win.

"Just knowing that we're the only team to beat them and we beat them twice . . . " Hepburn said.

He couldn't even complete his sentence.

"We've just got to get after it again this year and hand them another couple losses," Bedoya said.

On the surface, the Eagles look different without Reuben Ayarna manning the midfield with the vision of a security camera. But the fundamental elements are the same.

Bedoya, the Florida import who collected eight goals and 10 assists in his debut season, is back with captain Michael Konicoff up front. Brown, who could have quit after suffering ACL injuries in the preseason of both his freshman and sophomore years, turned into one of the top goalkeepers in the conference and is torn between going pro and taking up the NCAA on its offer for an additional year of eligibility based on hardship.

Then there are the defenders, but the only way you can get their contribution to show up on the stat sheet is by looking at the other team's numbers.

BC gave up just 16 goals last season, second only to the national champions, and the Eagles never allowed two goals in a game.

"It's like the offensive line," Kelly said. "If you don't have a good offensive line, the quarterback's dead meat. All that stuff applies here."

So BC's forwards live by the idea that if they get one goal, they're good, and if they get two, the game's over.

"It makes it so much easier on us knowing that all they really need from us is just one or two goals and the game's pretty much set," Konicoff said.

Bedoya was the only Eagle listed among 48 preseason candidates for the Hermann Trophy, college soccer's Heisman. And that's fine.

"They're not really egomaniacs," Kelly said. "They're not thinking they're big superstars. They're just hard workers and get the job done and it all works."

It's a thankless job, but if you ever find that forward from Virginia, he'll say it's far from anonymous. Melas made sure to leave his calling card.