The Brandeis men's soccer team closed out their regular season in style on Saturday with a 2-1 win over New York University.Coming off of a tough 2-0 loss to Carnegie Mellon, the Judges came out strong, scoring the only goal of the first half. Charles Goodhue '06 scored on a breakaway in the 36th minute off of a pass from David Spear '07. In the 76th minute, the Judges struck again when Shelton Stewart '06 converted a free kick. Stewart's goal gave him a team-leading nine for the season.

With five minutes remaining in regulation, NYU's Anthony Trillo scored, ruining Jake Knoll's '08 shutout and bringing the score to 2-1, where it would stay for the remainder of the game. Brandeis was outshot by NYU 14-9 and Knoll finished the game with eight saves. The win brought the Judges' record to 9-10, 3-4 in the UAA conference.

Coach Mike Coven was impressed with his team's play on Saturday, happy to see the team generate some offense.

"We controlled the ball and we dominated play," Coven said, "The difference is this time we scored a few goals. I'm happy with the way we played."

Those "few goals" had been the problem for the team this season; every loss the team accumulated had been by a difference of only one or two goals. Coven said that although the 9-10 record is disappointing, he was happy with the season, especially considering that they faced one of the most difficult schedules in the country.

Scott Zacharoff '07 agreed that the record is disappointing.

"We lost a handful of games by mistakes that we should not have committed in the first place," Zacharoff said.

It was very important for the team that they ended the season the right way.

"Thinking that we might not make the playoffs, we wanted to get a win for ourselves," Zacharoff said, "We wanted to get a win going into next season."

The prospects are bright for next season. The team will lose several seniors, but has a strong young core returning. The Judges will miss seniors Matt Kaplan, Mike Pio, Tim Shannon, Brian Bisceglia-Kane, Joe Jorge and Jim Puritz, but have much to be excited about. Knoll is returning, hopefully for an injury free season. The Judges' scoring duo of Stewart and Yuval Ezer '07 will continue to mesh.

"We will have a large number of players who have experienced the college level of play," Zacharoff said.

"We have the potential to be one of the best teams in the country," Coven said.