This past weekend, the men’s soccer team, ranked third in the nation, had a pair of University Athletic Association matches against Washington University at St. Louis and the University of Chicago, with a chance to clinch the UAA conference with two wins. 

The team came out winners against WashU 2-1 on Friday but were dealt only their second loss of the season against Chicago on Sunday afternoon.

The squad moves to 16-2 overall and 4-2 in UAA play, second in the conference behind Chicago. 

“The team played very well overall [this weekend]. We unfortunately just could not find the back of the net [against Chicago],” said forward Zach Vieira ’17.

This past Sunday, the team faced Chicago, who entered with a UAA record of 3-0-2 at the top of the conference, in a matchup of the UAA’s top-two teams. 

The game was a very close competition, with the both teams getting a number of chances on goal in a defensive struggle. 

Overall, Brandeis lead in both corner kits and shots, the former being a 13-5 advantage and the latter a 12-0 advantage. At the end of the day, however, the squad’s inability to put the ball in the back of the net cost them a victory. 

The team managed only to force a pair of saves out of Chicago freshman goalkeeper Hill Bonin, both in the first half. 

In the 76th minute, the home team took their chance. After intricate passing by the Maroons, Chicago junior midfielder Nic Lopez fed in freshman forward Brenton-Neal Desai, who then managed to sneak a left footed finish into the bottom right corner. 

The Judges did not back down, increasing their pressure on the Chicago defense. 

Though the squad had most of the possession and dominated the game, they were ultimately let down as the home team’s defense did not give up the equalizer and kept the clean sheet.

“We out-played Chicago in almost every aspect of the game,” said Vieira. “We out-possessed, out shot and out-worked them. 

“We just could not find the game winner that we needed.”

On Friday night, the host Bears came out very strong, ending the half with a 5-4 shot advantage and generally seeing more of the ball. After the second half began, the Bears managed to find their way through, converting a 69th-minute penalty into a 1-0 lead. 

WashU sophomore midfielder Jack West was deemed to have been taken down in the box and converted the succeeding penalty kick for a 1-0 WashU lead. 

The goal marked just the second time this year the Judges faced a deficit in a game and spurred a sequence of dominating possession by the visitors. 

The Judges nearly tied the game in the 75th minute after a great chance by forward Tyler Savonen ’15, who also made the Capital One Academic All-District One team this past week. 

Savonen flicked a shot toward goal that produced a great diving save by WashU freshman goalkeeper Daniel Geanon, but the Bears were not yet out of danger. 

Viera followed just a minute later, finding himself open in the box but could not manage to get the right contact on the ball and put it on net.

 In the 89th minute the Judges finally got the goal they needed, when a cross by forward Evan Jastremski ’17 found its way into the net off the opposing player for an own-goal. 

In the 96th minute, Brandeis produced the game-winning goal, coming off a cross from midfielder Josh Ocel ’17 who set up a perfect ball from a corner kick for defender Robbie Lynch ’15 to head in. 

The goal was both Lynch’s second of the season and second game-winner this year.  

Vieira said the two conference matches taught the squad a number of lessons they can apply to their game moving forward.

“We need to take away that even if were out-playing a team, we need to finish the chances we create early so we don’t end up in an undesirable situation at the end,” said Vieira.

With these two critical UAA games behind them, the squad will look forward to their final game against New York University this coming weekend at NYU. 

The team needs to win Saturday’s game and hope for a Chicago loss to earn the regular-season championship of the conference. In doing so, the team would earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships that goes along with all conference  championships. 

The team will square off against NYU at 11 a.m. on Saturday.