Friday, October 30, 2015

Minutemen


On a sunny Sunday afternoon (9/27) at 4pm, The Brown bears took on Umass Minutemen after a tough loss Friday (9/25) against Florida Gulf Coast.  The Bears were excited to bounce back with a victory the week before the start of the Ivy League season.  The Bears expected to win this match, but knew it wouldn’t be easy and knew everyone had to bring their focused energy and commitment for a full 90 minutes to get a result. 

The first scoring chance came with 32 minutes left in first half from the Bears, when a missed heading clearance from the Minutemen’s right back landed at senior Jack Gorab’s feet, who played the ball to freshmen Matthew Chow 20 yards out.  Chow dribbled horizontally across the center of the field and sent a curling shot towards the top right corner.  But the Minutemen goalie had seen it the whole way, and made the save. 

Freshman Carl Johan Mix got the ball two times on the right side and sent two well placed crosses into the box with 28 and 27 left to play in the first half.  The Bears tried to battle their way onto a header, but the Minutemen goalie came out to claim it on both opportunities. 

The first chance for Minutemen came with 25 left to play in the first half from movement of the ball through the middle of the pitch towards the left side.  The Umass forward was slipped in on a through ball, and was able to dribble around center and left back Gabe Welp(sophomore) and Mix, slotting the shot to the far post past Junior goalkeeper Erik Hanson.  Down 1-0, the Bears needed to dig deep and find the quality play to put them back in the game.  This wasn’t the first time the Bears had been down a goal in the first half and came back, so they weren’t fazed and kept their focus moving into the second half. 

With 43 min in the second half to play, Gorab got the ball wide on the left side, managed to beat a defender down the line and whip in a dangerous cross that the goalie punched out 10 yards towards the middle of the box.  Junior Mike Leone was waiting for the rebound, and while holding off a defender, tried to volley the bouncing clearance on frame but the shot went just above the crossbar. 

With 24 minutes left in the game, the tiebreaking goal finally came.  Senior Tariq Akeel possessed the ball 20 yards out in the middle of the field, and found Gorab at the edge of the 18.  Gorab received it and played the ball wide to Junior Nate Pomeroy, who was waiting at the corner of the 18 for a one-timed curling shot into the top right corner.  The Bears now had all the momentum and energy geared towards getting that next goal.

With only 10 minutes left to play, the Bears won a corner kick. With Gorab on the ball, a whipped service into the box hit the far post and bounced down into the 6 yard box, with Minutemen desperately trying to clear it.  A poor clearance from Umass sent the ball to Tim Whalen on the near post, who headed it back towards the far post over the goalkeeper to put the Bears up 2-1!  Brown managed to hold to lead for the remaining 10 minutes through lock down defense and communication, improving their overall record to 4-3-0 heading into the Ivy League opener at Columbia.  Browns hard work and perseverance played a huge role in their comeback this weekend, especially bouncing back from a loss two days prior to a talented FGCU.  ROLL BEARS!! 

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