Saturday evening, the men’s soccer team (6-6-2, 2-3-1 Ivy) sailed to a 1-0 victory over Columbia (3-7-4, 1-4-1) in front of a packed Senior Day crowd. Following the win, the Bears sit at fourth place in the conference with just one match remaining to secure a spot in the Ivy League Tournament.
After a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Cornell last week, the Bears entered Saturday’s match looking to break a three-game losing streak and keep their postseason hopes afloat. On the other side of the field, Columbia came in hot off the heels of a 5-1 victory over Fordham (8-5-3, 5-1-2 Atlantic 10) and a 3-1 win over Harvard (5-5-5, 1-3-2).
But whatever momentum the Lions may have felt coming into the match was thwarted immediately. In the game’s opening minutes, Brown dominated on both ends of the field.
“I don’t think it was pretty. Ivy League games are tough, but I’m really proud of our team,” Head Coach Chase Wileman told Brown Athletics after the game.
“It’s been a long month,” Wileman added, “and just the resilience that we showed, with the fight and spirit, tells you a lot about the group.”
In the 16th minute, the Bears propelled themselves onto the scoreboard. Mads Stistrup Petersen ’26, a 2024 Second Team All-Ivy midfielder, arced a corner kick into the box. Columbia’s goalkeeper punched the ball away, but Brown’s Greyson Mitchell ’26 stood in its way and sent a header back into the six-yard box. Facing away from the goal, Stefano D’Agostini ’28 secured the ball and miraculously windmilled, sending a powerful volley into the back of the net to mark his first goal of the season.
Just like that, Columbia was trying to crawl back into a game that had barely started. But Brown did not let up. The Bears’ offense — spearheaded by 2024 First Team All-Ivy forward Lorenzo Amaral ’27 — continued to relentlessly hammer the Lions’ defense.
In an email to The Herald, Amaral wrote that his success this season could not have come “without the commitment of (his) teammates and coaches.”
“At the end of the day, I want the team to be successful and (to) continue to push myself so we can reach our objectives for this season,” he added.
In the 29th minute, Amaral found himself isolated on the right wing. Burning his defender to the middle of the field, he sent a beautiful cross to D’Agostini, but the shot was called offside.
Brown maintained their stronghold for the rest of the half, outshooting the Lions 6-2. But other than D’Agostini’s early netting, neither team put a single shot on goal, and the score remained 1-0 at halftime.
Bruno came back from the break blazing. Less than 2 minutes into the second half, Mateo Pereyra ’29 — Brown’s leading goal-scorer — sent a beautiful through ball into the box to an open Jamin Gogo Peters ’26, who narrowly missed the top right corner of the goal.
Despite trailing on the scoreboard, Columbia fired back with a flurry of chances, with 10 of their 12 total shots coming in the second half. During one close encounter in the box in the 60th minute, a dangerous Columbia cross led to a narrow miss.
Although the Lions had several opportunities to score, none of them came to fruition — mainly due to the strong Bruno backline anchored by goalie Henrik Weiper ’26.
There is “nothing better than an evening with a clean sheet,” Weiper told Brown Athletics after the game. “A lot of credit goes to my defense line, and the whole team in general.”
Play remained relatively equal until, over 70 minutes in, an illegal slide tackle in the box gave Brown a penalty kick and a chance to put the nail in the coffin. Peters stepped up to take the kick, but his powerful shot bounced off the post, and the score remained 1-0.
As the final minutes ticked down and the prospect of defeat became more tangible, Columbia put more pressure on the Bears. But a save by Weiper — marking his third of the night — kept the Lions scoreless. When the final whistle blew, the Bears rode the 1-0 victory into the night.
“Our team was focused on the goal of getting a result, and I’m happy we were able to come out with it,” Amaral wrote.
The team looks to secure a spot in the Ivy tournament with a win over Yale (2-9-3, 1-4-1) this Saturday in New Haven.
“The team knows what’s on the line,” Amaral wrote. “We know it’s a game we have to win in order to make it to the playoffs, so now it’s full concentration on the gameplay and mental preparation.”
