Despite a last-minute change of venue, the men's lacrosse team downed the University of Massachusetts-Amherst 10-5, behind five goals from captain Charles Towers '04.
The game against the 16th-ranked Minutemen was scheduled to be the Bears' first home game of the year but, due to the snowfall earlier in the week, had to be moved to Harvard University's Jordan Field, in Cambridge, Mass.
"The kids were disappointed that we had to play on the road again, but we didn't want to make any excuses," said Head Coach Scott Nelson.
At first, it looked as if UMass's strong defense would hold Brown's offense in check, as the Bears fell behind 2-0 with four and a half minutes left in the first quarter. But Brown responded shortly after, as David Madeira '07 found the net on a pass from Chris Mucciolo '05 to end the first quarter down by only one goal.
Madeira, who has started all four games, scoring five goals and adding an assist, has given the kind of performances Nelson said he did not expect from the first-year for a few more seasons.
"We knew when we recruited David Madeira he could be a great player here," said Nelson. "We think he's gotten there sooner due to consistent hard work. We hoped he would be this good."
Brown took advantage of three UMass penalties to tie the score on a behind-the-back goal by Towers with 9:54 left in the half. He would add another one just a few minutes later to put the Bears ahead 3-2, a lead they would not relinquish. Alex Buckley '07 added an unassisted goal to give the Bears a 4-2 halftime lead.
"Towers and the players with experience started to take over," Nelson said.
The Bears started off the second half red-hot, scoring twice to give Brown six unanswered goals and a 6-2 lead. The Minutemen, however, refused to quit and cut the lead to one, making the score 6-5 on three straight goals.
Once again, Towers stepped up, scoring his second extra-man goal of the day with 46 seconds left on a pass from Kyle Wailes '06. As Brown's leading passer, Wailes has notched 12 assists on the season, an average of three per game.
"Charlie does a lot more than score goals for us," Nelson said. "He plays inside off the ball, so most of his goals must come in off feeds."
With a slim 7-5 lead entering the final period, the Bears knew they were in dangerous territory. Just two weeks prior they had taken a 9-5 lead into the fourth quarter against the University of Vermont, only to watch it slowly disappear behind three straight goals from the Catamounts.
But the Bears destroyed any hope of a UMass comeback as a goal from Mucciolo and two more from Towers sealed the 10-5 win.
"We were playing very smart," Nelson said. "We have been working on being a better fourth-quarter team, and I think all the hard work these kids have been putting in shows. The offense knew when to give the defense a break, and that was a big reason why we were able to shut them out in the second and fourth quarters."
When the Minutemen did get the ball on their offensive half, the Bears' defense quickly shot them down. Mike Levin '04 had another solid game in goal, saving eight of 26 shots and only allowing five goals. Bobby Shields '07 also came up big for the defense, scooping up four ground balls.
Kirk Teatom '05 played a major role in allowing the Bears to maintain possession of the ball by winning 11 out of the 18 faceoffs, including six out of eight in the first half.
The Bears face another significant challenge this Saturday when they face Loyola College of Maryland. The Greyhounds, who are perennially a top-10 team in the nation, are currently 2-2 on the season, having defeated Towson University and the University of Notre Dame and lost to Duke University and Hofstra University.
