For those who missed the result, a glance at the box score would likely leave little doubt about who won Wednesday’s game between the Brown men’s soccer team (1-3) and Sacred Heart University (3-3). The Bears outshot the Pioneers 17 to five, had seven shots on goal to the visitors’ three, and won eight corner kicks to SHU’s one.
And yet, it was Sacred Heart that left Stevenson-Pincince Field victorious, relying upon a goal in each half to steal a 2-1 road win.
“Performance level was good but we certainly didn't do enough to win the game,” Brown Head Coach Chase Wileman said. “We had more possession, shots, set pieces and territory but none of that really matters. It's about finding a way to get the result and we didn't do that.”
“Overall the performance wasn't bad, but it wasn't up to the standard we know we can play at, which is disappointing to all of us,” defender Taha Kina ’24 said.
Brown fell behind quickly thanks to a 21st minute goal from Sacred Heart forward Alex Almuzara, one of just two Pioneer shots in the half. In the second half, the Pioneers found the back of the net even faster, with a goal just four minutes in from forward Oliver Persson, who got on the end of a long free kick.
On the attacking end, the Bears, despite prolifically creating chances, couldn’t capitalize. In the 79th minute, close-range attempts from midfielder Scott Gustafson ’24 and forward Lorenzo Amaral ’27 were fruitless.
The Bears’ scoreless streak, which had reached almost three full games, was finally broken by midfielder Cal Walsh ’25, whose 88th minute goal was the first of his Brown career.
The Bears have had an up-and-down beginning to the season. A strong 3-1 win in the season opener against University of Massachusetts was followed by a 6-0 beatdown at the hands of Fairfield University. On Saturday evening, Brown faced a tough test against No. 5 University of Central Florida, falling 2-0 in what was a hard-fought, even match.
Bruno will need to make its attack more clinical, having scored just once in their last three games. “A part of it is believing that when you get that chance, you're going to score,” Kina said. “We're getting ourselves into good positions, we just need to do a better job being more ruthless and hungry to score.”
The loss to Sacred Heart is now the Bears’ third in a row with Ivy League play just two games away. Last season — which was Wileman’s first as head coach — the Bears went winless with three draws in the Ivy League despite going 8-2 in non-conference play.
The team is “not where we want to be results-wise but the margins are really small at this level,” Wileman said. “We need to clean some things up and continue to get better so we are peaking later in the season.”
“We've shown progress in the last couple games, now we just need to minimize our mistakes and find that touch in the box and we can turn this thing around,” Kina said. “The Ivy League is so competitive and there's only seven games, so we'll go into each game with the confidence that we can take three points to achieve our goal of being in the Ivy League tournament.”
Brown will begin their conference schedule at home against Columbia on Sept. 23 after facing two in-state rivals — Bryant on Sept. 16 and Providence Sept. 19.
