This weekend, the men’s soccer team closed out their 2019 season with a 2-0 win on Senior Day over conference rival New York University (NYU). With this win, Brandeis finishes its season with a record of 10-5-4. In the University Athletic Association (UAA), the men’s team finished 3-3-1 overall.
At the beginning of the match, Brandeis honored the nine seniors that make up the graduating class of 2020: Gabriel Sultan ’20, Dylan Hennessy ’20, Colin Panarra ’20, Max Breiter ’20, Jake Warren ’20, David Murphy ’20, Alex Walter ’20, AJ Mercer ’20 and Greg Irwin ’20. As a whole, the class of 2020 has had some impressive feats. These include trips to two NCAA tournaments, two trips to the Final Four, defeating multiple reigning national champions during these runs and reigning in too many All-UAA selections and UAA Player of the Week honors to count.
After their Senior Day celebration, the first half began, and both teams were off to a slow start. The half finished scoreless, as both the Judges and the Violets had five shots, Brandeis had two on goal and NYU had one. In the second half, at the 57th minute mark, NYU’s Sergio Monton was ejected from the game for throwing a punch at Brandeis’s Jake Warren ’20.
After this, Monton was given a red card, and NYU played with 10 players the remainder of the game. Soon after, in the 64th minute the Judges scored their first goal of the game. Will DeNight ’23 sent the ball into the goal from the top of the box. The assist was from Evan Glass ’21, who launched a throw in from the left side of the field. This gave DeNight his seventh goal of the season, making him the leading scorer of the UAA. The assist was Glass’s first this season and his second for his career.
Brandeis held its 1-0 lead until the 78th minute of the game when the Judges scored a second goal by Noah Gans ’21. Gans scored off a cross from Warren, giving Gans his fourth goal of the season. This also gave Warren his second assist of the season. The Judges maintained their lead the rest of the game with the help of goalkeeper Greg Irwin ’20. Irwin made three saves in the match, securing his eighth shutout of the season.
For NYU, goalkeeper Luca Mancuso had four saves. Ethan Pizano led the team in shots for NYU with two, while DeNight led the Judges with five. Overall, the Judges outshot NYU 14-7, and 9-2 in the second half when they played a man up.
With the win over NYU, this gave Brandeis its 10th win of the season. This is the Judges’ ninth time ending the season with over 10 wins in the last 10 years of the program. The team will return to action next in the fall of 2020.
