Two games. Two victories. Two shutouts. The Brandeis men’s soccer team is off to an incredible start, outscoring its opponents 7-0, out-shooting them 39-13, and looking like they have a strong chance to post a very solid season.
Endicott College was the opponent on Saturday, August 30th, and the Judges came out firing. Just four minutes into the game, Ben Premo ‘09, Brandeis’s leading active scorer, started the season with a hard shot into the net assisted by rookie midfielder Luke Teece. Teece wasn’t done; within five minutes, he set up junior Patrick Metelus and Brandeis had a 2-0 going into halftime.
The second half started just as quickly, again courtesy of Premo. After taking a pass from Corey Bradley ‘10 and slamming the ball into the crossbar, Premo collected his own rebound and shot again, this time finding the back of the net in the 49th minute. Looking for the hat trick, Premo struck gold in the 73rd minute, scoring an unassisted goal and proving that he is back with a vengeance following a relatively lackluster 2007 campaign. After one more goal from freshman Alexander Farr, Brandeis walked off with a dominant 5-0 victory.
Premo’s three goals and eight shots were exactly the leadership necessary for a team suffering from several key losses. The team totaled 22 shots, and Tyler Bracken ‘10 and Sean O’Hare ‘12 each made two saves in one half of action to combine for the shutout.
Brandeis followed the offense explosion with a game against the Wentworth Institute of Technology on Thursday, September 4th, and while the fireworks weren’t quite as spectacular, the end result was exactly the same. Patrick Metelus tallied his second goal of the year in the 19th minute, Kyle Gross ‘11 scored an insurance goal five minutes later, and Brandeis cruised to the end from there.
The defense was particularly spectacular, allowing Wentworth only one shot on goal. Bracken and O’Hare once again split the contest and earned the combined shutout.
With his 6 points this season (3G, 0A), Ben Premo passed Ken Hannan ‘95 and Greg Allen ‘86 to move into 8th place on Brandeis’s career scoring list; he needs 6 more points to pass Mike Lichtenstein ‘79 for seventh place. The Judges’ next game will be on Saturday, September 6th at home against Clark University.
