WALTHAM, Mass. - The Brandeis men's soccer team scored a pair of goals of nice set pieces tonight, as the Judges broke into the win column with a 2-1 victory over visiting MIT. The Judges improve to 1-3-1 on the season, while the Engineers fall to 5-3.
For the second game in a row, Brandeis opened the scoring. They tallied off a free kick in the 28th minute. Senior midfielder Cory Bradley (Holyoke, Mass./Holyoke) put a ball in the mix from about 30 yards out. It found the foot of rookie forward Sam Ocel (No. Attleboro, Mass./No. Attleboro) who slid it across the goal mouth to classmate Matt Peabody (Brunswick, Maine/Brunswick). Peabody buried it for his second goal of the season. The Judges enjoyed a 1-0 halftime lead despite getting outshot, 6-4, in the stanza.
MIT scored an equalizer in the 58th minute on the third of three straight corner kicks. After his first two attempts were deflected out of bounds by the Judges, Engineer junior forward Christian Therkelsen (Nesbru, Norway/Nesbru) sent one through the box. Rookie defender Ben Lewis (W. Hartford, Conn./Conard) was there to head the ball home for his first collegiate goal.
Brandeis responded in the 68th minute with a corner kick goal of their own. Sophomore reserve forward Noah Bass (Louisville, Kent./DuPont Manual) got the ball through to sophomore Luke Teece (Tucson, Ariz./University). Teece launched a ball at the net and classmate Alexander Farr (Nahant, Mass./St. John's Prep) was able to deflect it with his head past MIT sophomore netminder Dyland Rankin (Providence, R.I./Moses Brown School). The Engineers were able to get more pressure on, taking five more shots in the final 23 minutes, but Brandeis junior Matt Lynch (Weymouth, Mass./Weymouth) had two saves in that stretch to preserve the lead. Rankin also had a nice stop on a shot by Judge rookie forward Joe Eisenbeis (Hingham, Mass./Hingham) in the 73rd minute to keep the visitors within one goal.
Lynch earned the win with five saves, as the Brandeis defense kept an MIT offense that had outscored its opponents, 24-9, at bay. Rankin finished with three stops for the visitors.
Brandeis is next in action on Saturday evening at 7 p.m. when they play host to Wheaton College, the No. 4 team in New England and No. 24 team in the nation according to d3soccer.com. MIT faces Clark Saturday at 4 p.m. in their NEWMAC opener.