BEVERLY-The men's soccer team battled through a physical season opener loaded with yellow cards, slide tackles and sideline shoves, emerging from the ruckus with a 2-0 win against host Endicott College on Saturday. The Judges prevailed thanks to solid play from the back line, as well as strong contributions from Ed Colburn '09 and Ben Premo '09 in their first collegiate game. Colburn scored the team's first goal late in the second half off an assist from Mike Snyder '08. Team captain Shelton Stewart '06, a sweeper, added the insurance goal midway through the second half on a long strike from the right side of the penalty box.

Stewart was the team's leading scorer last season until he was moved to the back line to help solidify the team's defense. Despite posting a shutout, Stewart said that the defense did not play as well as he would have liked.

"I didn't think that we were as composed as we needed to be," Stewart said.

Earlier in the game, Stewart almost cost the Judges a goal when he left a lazy pass across the middle which was intercepted and booted into the crossbar.

Fellow captain and backfielder Scott Zackaroff '07 agreed that the team might not have played as well as they appeared to.

"We knew what we needed to do, we just didn't get it tonight," Zackaroff said. "We didn't get our marks and we weren't talking to each other enough."

The team's biggest challenges were with ball control around the midfield line, and with moving the ball up to the forwards from the back line, head coach Mike Coven said. He also said the team needs to learn to adapt to the pressure and aggressive style of teams like Endicott.

"We want to control the ball, but it's kind of impossible with teams like this, that are very athletic and very fast and they put us under a lot of pressure," Coven said. "I think we're going to have to learn to release the ball and make decisions about what to do with the ball quicker, and I think that we need to use our speed better."

A second-half fight was narrowly avoided after Premo was tackled on a streaking breakaway opportunity. Although the Endicott player slid into Premo from behind inside the penalty box, the referees did not call a penalty.

Premo was shaken up and as play stopped for him to leave the field, players from both teams yelled at one another as the Judges pleaded their case to the referees. Stewart got into a brief shoving match with an Endicott player during the play stoppage.

Shortly after, a referee ran over to the Brandeis sidelines to talk to Coven, who had been continually yelling at him since the play ended.

"He just asked me to stay inside the coach's box and I said I certainly will, sir," Coven said. "Not only did Premo get hurt, but we didn't get the penalty kick. That was a horrible, horrible, horrible call."

After the game, Stewart ran up to talk to the referees himself.

"I just gave them a hug and said, 'You should get it right next time,'" he said.

The team stayed composed after the contentious play and quickly established a physical presence on Endicott's side of the field, allowing Stewart to come up and fire the ball into the net from the back of the penalty box.

The defense fought off a few strong drives by the Endicott team in the waning minutes to solidify the win.

"We're very dedicated and ... we have high hopes for this season," Zackaroff said. "We want to win our conference first of all and we want to go to the NCAA [tournament]. There are seniors who have meant a lot to this program, and that's our goal."

The Judges visit Wentworth College Thursday before taking on host Clark University on Saturday.