The men's soccer team could hardly have cooked up a better weekend. On Friday night, the Bears thrilled a massive crowd with a 2-1 victory over No. 5 Santa Clara University. After a day off, the Bears dominated Fordham University en route to a 3-1 win Sunday and their first Adidas-Brown Classic championship since the 2003 season.
Following two straight NCAA Tournament seasons, Brown opened its 2007 season with one of its biggest victories in several years. Brown offset Santa Clara's speed with intensity from the opening minutes, but it could not stop the Broncos from getting on the board first. Santa Clara displayed its offensive skill when forward Brian Martin beat two defenders dribbling from the right corner to just inside the 18-yard box, then chipped a ball to Jide Ogunbiyi in the middle of the box. Ogunbiyi, one of the tallest players on the field, pounded a header into the top of the net to give the visitors the early lead.
The Bears hung with Santa Clara in the first half and tested the Broncos' defense on multiple occasions. Darren Howerton '09 struck a few dangerous corner kicks that skirted through the box, and Stephen Sawyer '09 and Rhett Bernstein '09 succeeded in keeping the Broncos off the board with numerous defensive stops.
"I thought we played extremely well in the first half," said Head Coach Mike Noonan. "It was a classic hard-fought college soccer game all the way through. The goal was pretty much a fluke - we missed a tackle, the ball popped through and they put it in."
Undaunted by the deficit, Brown opened the second half with a bang. Just four minutes into the second half, David Walls '11, playing in his first collegiate game, swung a cross into the box from the right flank. Dylan Sheehan '09 met the ball high in the air and redirected it past the sprawling Broncos goalkeeper and into the top corner of the net, sending the College Hill Kickoff crowd into a frenzy.
But the Bears were far from finished. After up-and-down play for the next few minutes, Sheehan received the ball at midfield with enough time to collect himself and chip the ball to a streaking Kevin Davies '08 at the top of the 18-yard box. Santa Clara goalkeeper Joseph Buttitta charged off his line, but Davies reached the ball first. He hit a shot from just outside the box that skipped into the empty net.
"Dylan flicked it over the defenders head, and I just put it over the goalie and into the net," Davies said. "It was a great pass."
Brown maintained its form for much of the rest of the half, but by the waning stages of the contest the Bears collapsed into a completely defensive position. At one point in the final five minutes, all 11 players positioned themselves inside the 18-yard box, and the entire team
essentially played kickball in order to run out the clock. Davies, removed from the game for a defensive substitute, said he was "on the bench literally pulling his hair out." When the clock hit zero, the Bears had come away with a victory in their first matchup with a top-5 opponent since tying the No. 4 University of California-Berkeley in 2004.
The Bears played Fordham in a very different atmosphere Sunday, but posted the same successful result. Sheehan nutmegged the Rams goalie after a Fordham defensive lapse in the 26th minute and Howerton volleyed home a shot from the top of the box six minutes later to give the Bears a 2-0 lead.
"I was actually trying to shoot it far-post," Sheehan, the tournament offensive MVP, said. "I mis-hit it so I was pretty happy to see it go in."
Fordham struck in the opening minute of the first half, but Brown applied the pressure and created numerous scoring chances for the rest of the half. Davies provided an insurance goal at the 68:52 when he banged home a beautiful cross-goal feed from Jon Okafor '11.
The team is hoping that the banner weekend will give the squad momentum for the rest of the year and hopefully another NCAA Tournament run in November. Brown will next be in action on Thursday when it hosts Maine at 3:00 on Stevenson Field.
