Welcome
back to the Brown Men’s Soccer blog. Let me first start out by
disclaiming that this will be a futile attempt to fill in for our
full-time blogger, Evan “old-man” Cole-man. In his fifth (perhaps sixth
or seventh, but whose counting?) year with BMS, Evan has joined the team
to help us with everything from practice (on the days that he actually
shows up) to filming games (on the days that he actually shows up) to
providing comic relief (always). In all honesty though, he was a legend
on the pitch and I think I speak for everyone when I say that we are all
very happy to have him back for another year.
On to Boston University…
Coming off of a 1-0 loss to Fordham, the team was eager to face BU on a
beautiful Thursday night in Boston. After a lot of Hope Street, a lot
of traffic, and a few parking mishaps, we finally arrived at Nickerson
Field. We stepped on to the field for warm-ups with beet juice in our
veins, ready for to battle against a very talented BU team who was
coming off of a tough road series against the likes of St. Johns, UNC, BC,
PC, UCONN, and Wake Forest.
The first ten minutes of the game lasted an eternity with a few BU
players going down injured in their own half after some ferocious
Brown pressure. After that, however, the game began to pick up. Most of
the play occurred in the midfield, where freshmen Timothy “Timbo”
Whalen (remember the name) and Tariq Akeel, grinded and battled. Although both
teams failed to connect their passes in the final third, when BU did make it across into the Brown half, the defense was stalwart. Alex “I’m-a-sophomore-now” Markes continued to shutdown everything on his side of
the pitch, winning 1v1 battles both on the ground and in the air.
Needless to say, the rest of the backline remained organized and poised,
showing why BMS has only conceded one goal during the course of this young season.
With more of the same in the second half, Brown began to put pressure
on BU in the final 15 minutes. Kevin “the tank” Gavey wreaked havoc,
constantly running past their back three. But, as it some times goes in
this beautiful game, that final ball in the box could not be found. As
the full time whistle blew, we came together knowing that we held the
advantage going into overtime. What we didn’t know, however, is that it
would only take 40 seconds to find the back of the net. Captain McDuff, using his Texas football intuition, chose to kickoff at the
beginning of OT. Then, Tom “trickstick” McNamara launched the ball directly
into a BU player’s hand, drawing a free kick for Brown within seconds.
With Dylan “Calves” Remick standing over the ball, my only thought from across the field was
‘please, please find Bobby’s head.’ Sure enough, Remick curled in an
outstanding ball to Bobby “Who said white men can’t jump?” Belair, who
was being grabbed and pulled by his defender. His flick toward the
center of the goal found Whalen’s bald head for a glancing header past
the BU keeper’s flapping hands. GOAL BROWN! Here is a look at the
ensuing celebration
While it may not have been the prettiest result, we got the job done
and battled for over 90 minutes. These are the kind of wins that you
come to appreciate as a senior---on the road, against a very talented
opponent, in overtime.
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