After narrowly defeating mid-table opposition in its first two games of the season, the No. 19 men's soccer team knew that it would have to step up its performance level this past week with home tests against regionally-ranked squads from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and longtime rival Babson College.

While the opening weekend yielded 3-2 and 2-1 victories against Keene State University and Rowan University, respectively, Brandeis was not playing to its full potential. It had failed to impose its game on its opponents and wasn't playing with team chemistry.

Thankfully, this week the Judges were able to rise to the challenge and down their highly-touted opponents.

After beating MIT on Wednesday night in overtime, 2-1, the Judges defeated Babson for the second straight year at home, 1-0, on Saturday evening.

"I was really happy with the way we worked for the full game," said coach Michael Coven following the 1-0 triumph over the Beavers. "In our other games, we really had trouble playing a full game. We would play well in parts, but we had stretches where we weren't working as a team. We were getting outworked. Tonight, everyone worked for the 90 minutes."

Babson battle

Though the Judges play against many quality opponents each year, Brandeis' annual game with Babson is arguably its biggest of the season.

In last year's contest, the Judges trailed at half-time, 1-0, before forward Lee Russo '13 tied the game in the second half. Then, in the second overtime, forward Sam Ocel '13 headed home the game-winner, launching a furious celebration.

Saturday night, several hundred spectators made their way to Gordon Field to watch the Judges-ranked 19th nationally and third in New England behind Williams College and Amherst College-take on the Beavers, ranked fourth in New England.

Knowing that there was only one spot separating the teams in the New England rankings, it was no surprise that the first half was a tight affair with few chances. Judges' goalkeeper Joe Graffy '13 stopped just two shots, while his counterpart, Babson senior netminder Jackson Klein, made one save.
Brandeis created the first significant chance, as forward Michael Soboff '15 shot just wide from a direct free-kick in the second minute.

In the 11th minute, Babson senior midfielder Mike Fisher sent an effort on goal, which Graffy saved.

Given that the game was largely a midfield battle, both Coven and Babson coach Jon Anderson substituted liberally in order to keep their players fresh.

Despite the half ending with the teams level at 0-0, it wasn't long into the second half before the Judges had found the back of the net.

The telling contribution came in the 56th minute. After receiving possession 30 yards out, midfielder Kyle Feather '14 launched a high shot on net, which caromed off the crossbar and went in, causing raucous celebrations from the the crowd.

Following the goal, defense became the focus. Graffy shone, making four big saves down the stretch.

Having withstood the threat, time expired and the Judges were able to celebrate the seismic 1-0 victory.

Though Babson lost three-time All-American forward Erik Anderson to graduation last spring-who scored his team's lone goal in Brandeis' 2-1 victory last year- Coven still has much respect for the Beavers.

"They work like crazy," he said of his team's opponents. "They did everything great in the back third and the middle third of the field. The one difference is, this year they don't have a goal scorer [like Anderson]. They'd get down to our defensive third and wouldn't have anyone to finish off the chances they created.

"Even though they lost [Anderson], they're still a very good team."

Encounter with the Engineers

While they don't evoke as much passion as games against Babson, Brandeis' games against MIT are very competitive.
In last season's showdown with the Engineers, the Judges led 3-1 in the second half before MIT scored two late goals to tie the game at 3-3. However, Brandeis won it 4-3 in overtime, when Russo scored a free-kick to complete his hat-trick that day.

This year, the visitors were aggressive from kick-off, and launched two shots at Graffy with less than 20 seconds gone.
Thankfully for the Judges, Graffy saved both efforts.

"Joe is a very good athlete," Coven said. "He was a successful goalkeeper in high school, but he'd never been coached. He'd never played club soccer. He won games as an All-New England goalkeeper with athleticism. Now he's getting coached [by goalkeeper coach Luis Soffner, a former Division I goalkeeper at Indiana University] and he's starting to become more confident."

Despite his success, there was little Graffy could have done about the opening goal that put the Judges down 1-0 less than 10 minutes into the game.

MIT sophomore midfielder Austin Freel launched a left-footed shot from 20 yards, which found the corner of the net.

Though it had lost a goal, Brandeis kept pressuring, and, in the 29th minute, won a free kick 25 yards out. From the set piece, midfielder Tudor Livadaru '14 scored a spectacular goal, launching a powerful, curling shot with the outside of his left foot, which gave MIT sophomore goalkeeper Jake Amereno no chance as it found the top-right corner of the net.

Livadaru then almost won the game for the Judges in the second half, but his curling left-footed shot hit the far post.

However, he assisted the telling contribution in overtime, playing a through-ball for forward Evan Jastremski '17, who buried his first career goal 3:50 into overtime to give Brandeis the 2-1 victory.

"[MIT] comes out with a lot of energy," said Coven after the game. "And it worked for them, because they got the goal. But, in the second half, they had used up their energy. They were pretty tired. Once their energy and adrenaline was gone, we were able to control the game."

Moving forward

The Judges' next contest is a home game, as they host Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

"WPI is solid," he said of his team's opponents. "I watched them today. They've got a kid up top who works hard. They've got a good goalkeeper. It'll be a good test."

While Brandeis passed two of its biggest tests, Coven is trying to keep a good perspective.

"We're just trying to take it one at a time."