“Not one thing was I happy about today.”
Brandeis head coach Mike Coven was nothing short of visibly perturbed following Brandeis’s second straight loss, bowing 2-1 to Bridgewater State at home.
“When we lose to a team like Wheaton who is ranked fourteenth in the country, we lose 2-1; it shows we played a decent game. This team is very average and we’ve just lost to – there’s no reason we should lose to a team like this so I’m very, very concerned about the direction the team is going right now.”
Bridgewater State started the scoring, converting a costly turnover into an 18 yard blast that beat Brandeis keeper Sean O’Hara at the 22nd minute. The Bears put the game out of reach in the 53 minute as forward Jon Nutting converted a thirty yard shot that was just under the crossbar but over O’Hara’s outstretched hands.
The Judges launched a furious effort in the second half – taking 14 shots alone and finally broke onto the board after Ben Premo ’09 converted a one timer set up by Patrick Metelus ’10 for his 36th career tally. Brandeis took nine shots in the final 26 minutes but a combination of bad luck and Bridgewater net minder Ryan Seifert’s 7 saves preserved the 2-1 victory. Brandeis outshot Bridgewater State 24-13 and O’Hara had four saves in the losing effort.
The loss comes three days after Brandeis saw their four game winning streak end at the hands of then number 22 ranked Wheaton 2-1. The Judges jumped onto the scoreboard first with a tally from rookie Alexander Farr ’12 who converted a one timer feed from fellow rookie Evan Ersing ’12. A point-blank save from keeper Cole Davidson kept the Judges from doubling their lead which proved critical as the Lyons tied up score at the 33rd minute. Eric Driscoll’s second goal of the season gave Wheaton the lead and an offside’s call wiped out what would have been the equalizer from Farr. The Lyons outshot Brandeis 16-10 in the game; O’Hare had five saves in the effort.
The losing streak comes at an unfortunate time for the Judges as they open this weekend with their first UAA match of the season, taking on Rochester on the road and then return to non-conference play against MIT at Cambridge. “Going into the UAA schedule right now, all the UAA teams are two or three goals better than this team we just lost to so we’ve got to make some changes, I’m going to have to think about and hopefully, we’ll be better on Saturday…I’m very disappointed, hopefully we’ll come out and play better against Rochester.”
