From the opening whistle against the New Jersey Institute of Technology (3-4-1, 0-0 America East Conference) this Saturday, the men’s soccer team (4-1-1, 0-0 Ivy) looked stiff. Although the Bears entered the contest red-hot on the back of three consecutive victories, their good form seemed to evaporate in the brisk autumn air.
An uncharacteristic defensive lapse in the first half caused the Bears to concede a goal and sent them into the locker room down 1-0. A goal by midfielder James Snaith ’28 in the 58th minute salvaged disaster for Bruno, but they could not find a score with any of their other 12 shots in the second half.
The 1-1 draw marked the end of Bruno’s home-game winning streak, pushing Bruno out of the No. 1 spot in the Ivy League standings with just one match before regular-season Ivy play.
“We kind of got what we deserved,” Head Coach Chase Wileman told The Herald in a post-game interview. “We had some chances, but I don’t think we did enough to really get the win. But if you can’t win, then don’t lose. We’ll take the draw and move on.”
While the Bears consistently kept the ball in their attacking half during the match’s opening stages, clunky execution repeatedly doomed any scoring chances they created.
Just five minutes into the game, forward Lorenzo Amaral ’27 received a well-placed arcing pass from the left side of the box. Set up mere feet from NJIT’s goalie, Amaral leapt into the air and attempted a header that bounced off the bottom of the right post.
Five minutes later — off a precisely placed throw-in by defender Nicholas Sanchez ’27 — midfielder and defender Mathias Hille ’27 collected the ball in the box and dished it to forward Carlo Brown ’27. But Brown’s close-range shot slowly rolled to the hands of Highlanders goalie Andre Faerman, who easily made the save.
The Highlanders did not waste much time capitalizing on Bruno’s misfires — and they did so in showstopping fashion. In a chaotic sequence featuring several loose balls, a Highlander swept the ball out from Sanchez’s possession.
As NJIT’s Mateusz Marciniak dribbled the ball in midfield, he noticed Brown goalkeeper Graham Kois ’28 had strayed a significant distance from the goal line. Without missing a beat, Marciniak launched a rocket into the night sky. Although Kois scrambled back, the ball soared mere inches over his outstretched glove and crashed into the back of the net to earn NJIT a 1-0 lead.
“We were a little bit open, trying to play out of the back, create chances for ourselves from the build out,” Kois told The Herald in a post-game interview. “I think we just got caught, gave the ball away in a tough spot.”
Following more unsuccessful offensive chances for Bruno, physicality began to bubble between the Bears and the Highlanders.
Just after the 40-minute mark, NJIT midfielder Stefan Lichtenheim was ejected from the game for a high kick which made contact with midfielder Sawyer Turiace ’29. After a video review, the officiating team confirmed the red card — much to the home crowd’s delight. The ejection reduced the Highlanders’ playing 11 to 10, giving the Bears a one-man advantage for the remainder of the game.
Less than three minutes later, Snaith received a yellow card for a push on a Highlander while chasing down a loose ball. Then, in the first half’s closing moments, a scuffle broke out between the two teams that sent each side to the locker room with tensions flared up.
During halftime, the Bruno coaching staff told the team to focus on defending the Bears’ home pitch and “attacking (NJIT) with everything we got,” Kois said.
Heeding the advice, the Bears emerged for the second half on the attack. Thirty seconds in, they drew a free kick and a yellow card on NJIT for hard contact on the Bruno captain and midfielder Zion Wharton ’27. Although it appeared that Carlo Brown had scored off an assist from Snaith, the referees called defender Shayne Thompson ’27 offside, snatching away the Bears’ moment of jubilee and silencing the celebratory music that had begun to echo around Stevenson-Pincince Field.
Bruno continued to pressure the Highlanders’ defense until Snaith netted the equalizer for good in the 58th minute. Dribbling just beyond the box, Hille slipped a pass into the box to Snaith, who attempted to send the ball to Carlo Brown, but the ball boomeranged. Snaith did not waste the opportunity, sending a bullet of a shot into the net’s bottom left corner.
“I was in a tight spot and got a lucky bounce,” Snaith told The Herald in a post-game interview. “I was trying to play Carlo through, but fortunately (the) defenders messed it up and had a chance. Glad I took it.”
The Bears managed to take 11 more shots in the second half. But despite plenty of aggression and superior possession control, Bruno could not get past NJIT’s defense.
A tantalizingly close chance came with less than 7 minutes left in the game. Hille was dribbling the ball with forward Mateo Pereyra ’29 running in tandem. Pereyra weaved through defenders until he was practically standing on NJIT’s goal line. But Pereyra ventured too far ahead of the ball, and mistimed what could have been an easy soft-touch to win the game. Soon after, time ran out alongside Brown’s hopes of coming away with the victory.
The Bears will be back in action on Tuesday when they head cross-town to take on Providence College (4-3-1, 0-1 Big East).
Providence is the team’s “biggest rival, probably,” Wileman said. “So I’m sure the guys will be up for it.”
Sajiv Mehta is a sports editor. He is from Scarsdale, New York and plans on concentrating in English and American Studies. In his free time, he can be found reading an encyclopedic novel or watching the Yankees.
