In their final game of the season, the Brandeis men’s soccer team faced New York University (NYU) on Nov. 5. The game was at home for the team’s Senior Day. Before the start of the game, they honored senior goalie Max Blacker ’23, goalie Aiden Guthro ’23, back Isaac Mukala ’23, forward Josh Gans ’23, back Forrest Shimazu ’23, forward Khalil Winder ’23 and forward Sammy Guttell ’23. The last time the two teams faced off, the Judges came out on top 1-0.
Just two minutes into the game, the Judges almost took an early lead from a shot by Guttell. His shot went just wide left. Winder also had an early shot, but it went over the goal. Guthro made his first save of the game in the 19th minute and was followed with a shot on the opposite end of the field by Gans. Unfortunately, his shot also went over the goal. The two teams traded shots for most of the first half, but NYU started to take control towards the end of the half. This resulted in the first goal of the game in the 43rd minute from NYU to give them a 1-0 lead. Senior forward Sancho Maroto Tobias ’23 got one more shot off before the end of the first half, but it went over the net. The Judges had four shots in the first half but none of them were on target. NYU on the other hand had nine shots with four of them being on target. The momentum was clearly on NYU’s side. They proceeded to extend their lead to 2-0 just four minutes into the second half. First-year midfielder Rainer Osselmann-Chai ’26 got the Judges’ first shot on target in the 50th minute but it was saved. Brandeis had a few more shots in the half but couldn’t get anything on target. NYU put the game out of reach in the 83rd minute with their third goal of the game. Brandeis ended up losing their last game of the season 0-3.
NYU outshot Brandeis 14-10 and had seven shots on target compared to Brandeis’ one. The Judges had three corner kicks to give them two more than NYU. However, Brandeis also had 13 fouls, which was over double the number NYU had. Guthro finished the game with four saves.
The team finished 6-8-2 overall and 1-6 in the conference. They were 3-4-2 at home and 3-4 away while scoring 1.19 goals per game and allowing 1.56 goals per game. Maroto Tobias led the team in goals with seven in 14 games played. Four players followed with two goals each. This included first-year midfielder Nico Beninda ’26, sophomore back Andres Gonzalez ’25, junior forward Max Horowitz ’24 and Osselmann-Chai. Osselmann-Chai also led the team in assists with five and was followed by Horowitz with three. Guthro finished the season with 81 total saves and five shutouts. His overall save percentage was .779. Osselmann-Chai won Co-Rookie of the Year in the University Athletic Association (UAA). He also earned an All-UAA honorable mention in his first season. Maroto Tobias made the All-UAA second team in his first year with Brandeis after transferring from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Finally, there’s Mukala, who earned an honorable mention All-UAA status in his final season for the Judges. Even though the team is graduating a few key players, they still have some of their top players going into next year, including Osselmann-Chai and Beninda. They are now getting ready to improve for next year.
