The Story So Far

With apologies for the large gaps in posts (being actually "on" the staff is actually a little harder than it looks!!), I shall attempt to bring all up-to-speed on events to date.....

Brown 1-0 St. John's.
The rivalry continued between the Red Storm of Jamaica, NY and our Brown Bears. A fantastic advertisement for college soccer, this game had it all. Goal-line clearances, fierce challenges, intensity for 90+ minutes, coaches going crazy on the sidelines (even Biggsy had a yell or two!) and a contingent of fans in the bleachers roaring the Bears to victory! It was actually a trademark Evan Coleman strike just two minutes into the contest that sealed the win for the boys. He latched onto a loose ball at the top of the box and dispatched it into the back of the net before many of the crowd had settled onto their aluminum benches at Stevenson Field. This was, for sure, a very talented St. John's team, but try as they might our defence stood tall when it mattered and Grandstrand finally had a lot of work to do! The last fifteen minutes, as St. John's threw everything at us (including the kitchen sink) was described by our two Texan centre-backs as "just like the Alamo." Hmmmmmmm......

Princeton 3-0 Brown.
Wake-up call time. We were good for ten minutes. Then we stunk for eighty. 'Nuff said. Moving on......

Brown 0-0 Haaaaarrvaaaard
I just don't like these people. I don't know why. Well, I do, somewhat..... We out-played them, out-ran them, out-worked them, out-shot them (26-5) and made them look second-best for 110 minutes. But someone put helium in the match-balls that night. We put more shots into the parking lot and practice field than you can imagine. We did everything but score. Sometimes you don't win because you are up against a well-matched opponent, sometimes because a bad call from a referee goes against you, and sometimes it just isn't your day. This just wasn't our day. We didn't lose! But we should have won. Up next.... Hartwick.

Brown 3-1 Hartwick
In 2008 we lost 1-0 at Hartwick. It was the most miserable experience that I've ever experienced on a soccer field. A frozen field on top of a hill, in upstate New York, in October, with horizontal snow, and a performance to match..... We never like to talk about "revenge" in the coaching ranks, but....... Well our 2010 Brown Bears put in a performance on this night that clearly laid to rest the ghosts of performances-past. Despite conceding a somewhat soft goal when we held a comfortable 2-0 lead, it was difficult to see us ever losing this one. The fact that Wallsy scored two goals (one from a free-kick and another following a howler by the visiting 'keeper) says it all really. Our aging captain took advantage of two situations to lead by example. Sandwiched between those two pieces of brilliance was a trademark Sean Rosa effort following excellent work by Dylan and Austin..... Of course, Wallsy has now spent the last two weeks moaning that he didn't get the man-of-the-match award - ah well, you can't win 'em all!

Brown 2-0 Cornell
And so, back to the business-end of things..... The Big Red (isn't that a cinnamon gum?) visited college hill having secured some very creditable results to-date, and we certainly weren't expecting an easy night. Two giant centre-backs, a lethal long-throw play, and a big, direct team descended upon us, and clearly weren't in the mood to leave us unscathed. Yet, to be fair, we were the superior side more-or-less from start to finish. Tommy-Mac was too much to handle for the visitors on this night, and he followed a simple finish from Tayl's cross with a expertly taken second goal following the annual Robbie assist (we think Rob was trying to kick an opponent, but missed and instead kicked the ball over the top for Tommy to use his blinding pace and beat the entire Cornell defence to the ball. A very good (but cold) night at Stevenson gets our Ivy season back on track. Oh, and Haaaaaarvard lost the next day...... :)