The Brandeis men’s soccer team cruised to an easy victory in a 5-0 victory against Keene State on Sept. 4 at the XARA Classic at Owl Athletic Complex improving to 2-0, after winning by the same score against Fitchburg State on Sept. 3, on the young season.
The Judges got on the scoreboard just five minutes into the first half when Kyle Feather ’14 cut through the defenders and kicked the ball past Keene State’s goalie Malcolm Cheney.
Cheney managed to keep it a one-goal game when he came out of the goalie box and stopped a shot by Luke Teece ’12 just 7:38 into the game. Later in the first half, both Joe Eisenbies ’13 and Teece had their shots deflected off the crossbar. The Judges took advantage of their next scoring chance, however, when Alexander Farr ’12 stole the ball in the right corner and kicked the ball into the far corner of the net from an extraordinary angle with just 42 seconds remaining in the first half, giving the Judges a 2-0 lead going into halftime. The goal was Farr’s 19th in his career, putting him within one goal of becoming the 17th Brandeis player with 20 career goals.
Keene State, which had managed a meager nine shots on goal in their two previous games this season, squandered a rare scoring opportunity at the 33:52 mark of the second half. First-year Kaleb Lique-Natove had a drive from the right side of the net but Brandeis goalie Blake Minchoff ’13 came across to the right side and made the save. Minchoff finished the game with five saves.
The Judges took advantage of Keene’s scoring failure just a minute later when Sam Ocel ’13 drove a shot past Cheney who had come off his line. Feather put the Judges ahead 4-0 at the 24:30 mark of the second half when he converted a crossing pass from Teece.
Although he let in five goals, Cheney had arguably the save of the game. With just 17 minutes left to play in the match, he deflected an absolute blast by Savonen over the crossbar. Eisenbies scored the final goal for the Judges with an immediate shot off of Savonen’s corner kick with just 16:45 left to play.
Cheney played the first 73:17 and had four saves. Meanwhile Keene State backup goaltender Michael Ketterman played the final 16:43, making one save in his first collegiate action.
Brandeis outshot the Keene State Owls 16-9 while both teams had five corner kicks each. The Judges had four players on the All-Tournament team with Farr, Eisenbies and Minchoff, joined by David McCoy ’12.
This was the first meeting between these two teams since 1998. The two coaches have 79 years of combined experience with Keene State’s Rob Butcher in his 40th season with the Owls and Brandeis’ Mike Coven in his 39th year on the sideline.
Earlier in the week, on Sept. 3, Brandeis defeated Fitchburg State in a 5-0 victory behind the performances of Steve Keuchkarian ’12 and Theo Terris ’12, who each netted a goal and dished out an assist.
Brandeis drastically outperformed the Fitchburg State Falcons, outshooting them 37-4, with 19 corner kicks compared to the Falcons’ two.
Brandeis midfielder Sam Ocel ’12 started the scoring just over 15 minutes into the first half when he pushed a nice cross from Keuchkarian past the Falcons’ netminder. No more than five minutes later, forward Lee Russo ’13 exploded past the Falcons’ defense and scored his first goal of the year one-on-one against the goalie.
Keuchkarian and Terris tallied goals just over two minutes apart, at the 54:11 and 56:53 marks respectively, with each of them being alone with the Fitchburg goalie.
Savonen scored the final goal at the 77:24 mark to net the Judges’ final goal and put them ahead 5-0.
Fitchburg first-year forward Wansi Frank could not convert on the Falcons’ best scoring chance. In the first half, Wansi crossed past two defenders and ripped a shot into the top right corner of the net, but Brandeis goaltender Minchoff made a spectacular diving save to keep the Falcons off the board.
Minchoff finished the game with three saves to complete his shutout victory. Meanwhile, the rookie goalie for the Falcons, Aidan Hanratty, was peppered with shots throughout the game, making 14 stops in a losing campaign in his first collegiate game.
