On Saturday, the Judges finished their regular season with a 2-0 win against the New York University Violets. 

The first half featured few chances of note in the biting cold and fizzled out toward the end as a frantic opening gave way to a more choppy final quarter of an hour. In potentially the final career game for the senior players on both teams, emotions were running high from the beginning of the second half. The Violets’ Matteo Russo was booked less than 90 seconds into the period for a late challenge, and frustration grew as the Violets were caught offside three times over less than four minutes. The frustration boiled over on in the 57th minute when a scuffle broke out well away from the ball. From afar, it appeared as though things may have settled down rather quickly before getting out of hand, but evidently this was not the case. NYU forward Sergio Monton was shown a straight red card, for throwing a punch according to the Brandeis Athletics website. Michael Burch ’22, who had played his part in the scuffle, was given a yellow card but would not have minded as the sending off marked the game’s biggest moment and turned the match decisively in the home side’s favor. It looked like it would be only a matter of time before the Judges would find the opener. They did so six minutes later when University Athletic Association scoring leader Will DeNight '23 swept home following an Evan Glass ’21 long throw. A goal up and playing with an extra man, the Judges’ result seemed in little doubt; but the visitors showed resilience, forcing a save out of Greg Irwin ’20 a mere 15 seconds after the restart. The victory would only be wrapped up 12 minutes from time, when a quick thinking Dylan Hennessy ’20 found Jake Warren ’20 from a throw in, allowing Warren to turn near the byline and send a low cross to Noah Gans ’21, who tapped it over the line from close range.  

Head Coach Gabe Margolis made a nice gesture in the game’s penultimate minute, bringing on seniors AJ Mercer ’20 and David Murphy ’20 to finish their careers with the result no longer in question. Max Breiter ’20 was industrious throughout the game despite not getting on the scoresheet.

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With the help of a man advantage for over half an hour, Brandeis outshot the Violets 14–7, led by five efforts from DeNight. The Judges also had six shots on goal and six corners to three and one respectively for their opponents. Each team received two yellow cards in the match, while Irwin made all three possible saves in keeping a clean sheet.

Before the game, all of the seniors on both teams were honored in a brief ceremony, including the Judges’ Hennessy, Breiter, Warren, Murphy, Mercer, Irwin, backup goalkeeper Gabriel Sultan, injured forward Colin Panarra ’20 and captain Alex Walter ’20. 

Now 10–5–4 overall and 3–3–1 in conference play, the Judges are tied for second place in the UAA and must hope for an at large bid to the postseason NCAA tournament if their season is to continue. 

In an interview with the Justice, Glass explained that the team is led by Senior Alex Walter. "Ever since his sophomore year he has held down the back line as our center-back and has continued to be a rock for us this year. He’s aided by our second captain, junior Noah Gans, who has been an integral part of the midfield since his freshman year. Together, they’ve been able to keep our team on track in pursuit of our collective goals” Glass said.