On Friday, under the lights of Stevenson-Pincince Field, the men’s soccer team (3-1, 0-0 Ivy League) continued their streak of home wins, claiming a 1-0 victory over Stonehill College (2-2-2, 0-0 Northeast Conference).
The win “definitely means a lot,” midfielder and defender Mathias Hille ’27 wrote in an email to The Herald. “Three wins in three games at home is a great start” to the season.
Backed by a lively group of fans behind the bench, the Bears created several early opportunities to score. In the fifth minute, forward Lorenzo Amaral ’27 sent a corner kick into a crowded penalty area, where the ball boomeranged dangerously around the box before a header narrowly missed the back of the net.
Two minutes later, Bruno threatened again. After a strong build-up play down the wing, the ball found forward Carlo Brown ’27 in front of the goal, but his attempt rolled just wide.
Stonehill began to find opportunities of its own as the half progressed. After a promising Brown attack in the 18th minute, the Skyhawks quickly countered, but midfielder Marshall Treese ’29 raced back to make a slide tackle that halted the attack.
Stonehill threatened again less than 10 minutes later. The ball bounced around a crowded Brown penalty area before a Skyhawk fired a shot toward the net, but goalkeeper Graham Kois ’28 reacted quickly, diving forward to smother the attempt.
The effort was one of Stonehill’s nine shots during the night compared to Bruno’s 23.
“Defensively, we have been solid in all four of our matches so far,” Head Coach Chase Wileman wrote in an email to The Herald. The team is “committed to our principle of no-goals mentality.”
On the other end of the field, an Amaral free kick in the 36th minute catalyzed a back-and-forth with forward Mateo Pereyra ’29, but Amaral could not direct the shot on target, and the half remained scoreless at the ref’s whistle.
“In the first half we had control but a lot of our play was side-to-side or backwards,” Wileman wrote. In the second half, “we had the mentality to be more forward thinking, threatening and dangerous to Stonehill.”
As Bruno entered halftime scoreless for the third time in four games, the opening stages of the second half were considerably quieter.
But in the 59th minute, Brown finally made its moment.
Bruno finally broke through in the 59th minute when defender Nicholas Sanchez ’27 fired a shot into the top corner. The goal instilled a newfound momentum, and the Bears generated a flurry of chances but could not find an insurance goal, forcing the team to protect their narrow advantage until the final whistle.
Just outside the center of the box, Carlo Brown threaded a pass through a Stonehill defender’s legs to Amaral. Amaral quickly dished the ball outside to Sanchez, who unleashed a powerful strike into the top corner of the net to give Bruno a 1-0 advantage.
The goal marked Sanchez’s first after transferring to Brown and spending the 2025 season recovering from an injury.
“It’s everything I’ve worked towards since I transferred,” Sanchez wrote in an email to The Herald. “I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face because of how much the goal not only meant to me, but to the entire team.”
Five minutes later, the Bears nearly doubled their lead. Amaral dribbled through three Stonehill defenders before laying the ball off to Hille, who struck a shot that curled off-target at the last moment to hit the right post.
Propelled by this momentum, Bruno had several close attempts by Bruno to put the game out of reach. In the 70th minute, defender Alex Sauerbrei ’30 skipped past a defender near the edge of the box and sent the ball to midfielder James Snaith ’28 for a shot on frame.
Less than a minute later, Hille and Snaith both threatened again. Snaith’s effort struck the crossbar and ricocheted off the back of the dazed Stonehill goalkeeper towards the goal line, but a defender raced back to clear the ball before it could cross into the net. Moments later, a poorly played Stonehill clearance landed at the feet of forward Donovan Mark ’30, and he fired another tantalizingly close shot off the right post.
But despite Brown’s barrage of chances, they remained just one goal ahead of the Skyhawks, who continued searching for the equalizer.
In the 76th minute, Stonehill came close to levelling the contest off a corner, but the Skyhawks’ attempt sailed over the goal.
Brown had one final opportunity to extend its advantage in the 87th minute when defender Luke Harrell ’30 made a run down the sideline and found midfielder Zion Wharton ’27. Wharton fired from outside the box, but his attempt sailed over the crossbar, and the Bears carried their 1-0 lead through to the game’s end.
Looking ahead, the Bears will host the University of Rhode Island (2-4, 0-0 Atlantic 10) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
“We look to keep this trend and momentum going,” Hille wrote. “We always emphasize how this field is our home and we will defend it with all we have.”
Harry Guo is a senior staff writer and on the vertical video and design teams. He is from Andover, Massachusetts, and plans on concentrating in Business Economics and International and Public Affairs. In his free time, he enjoys writing poetry and playing poker.
