Although a crowd of bald caps in support of the “Be Bold, Be Bald” campaign turned out on Friday, Oct. 17 for the men’s soccer game, the Judges just couldn’t produce enough energy to get ahead of the Carnegie Mellon Tartans. The game was evenly matched with nine shot attempts for each side, but unusually physical with a total of 20 fouls on each side.
The game went scoreless into double overtime, until Zach Vieira ’17 scored for Brandeis with 3:45 left in the second overtime. Patrick Flahive ’18 headed the ball to the left side of the box for the assist, where it found the feet of Vieira, who then dodged a defender and outsmarted CMU goalkeeper Jacob Rice ’15 with a shot to the lower-right corner of the goal.
The goal from Vieira was all the Judges needed to win the game 1-0, improving their record to 13-1 on the season and 2-1 in the UAA conference.
The Judges came out with a 1-0 victory again on the Oct. 19 for another win against the Emory Eagles. The two teams battled in the first half with a fair number of shots on both sides. One came as a close call for the Judges when, with one minute left in the half, Emory’s Connor Curtin got off a solid shot to the left side only to be denied by Brandeis’ Joe Graffy ’15, who leaped to make the save. The first half ended with the Eagles and Judges on an even playing field of four attempted shots each and a scoreless game.
After the exciting shot at the end of the first half, it was expected that the Eagles would come back with a lot of energy. However, Brandeis matched their intensity to keep up the tight defense. The second half began as the first did, with an attempt on both goals. The first and only goal of the game came shortly into the second half, at 49:42. But this goal was all the Judges needed to secure the win. Tyler Savonen ’15 was pulled down in the box, and rewarded a penalty shot as a result. This penalty shot is Savonen’s second penalty shot he has scored this season for the win. Savonen’s goal also gave the Judges their seventh 1-0 victory this season.
The Judges outshot the Eagles 9-7, while the Judges’ tight defense kept the Eagles from scoring. Graffy stopped all four shots taken against him during the game.
Judges men’s soccer plays again on Oct. 27, in a home game against Mount Ida College at 7 p.m.
