A late second-half goal by the Brown Bears dashed the upset hopes of the men's soccer team yesterday as the Big Green fell 2-1 to the sixth-ranked Bears at Chase Field. The loss dropped the Big Green to 1-1 in the Ivy League and out of a first-place tie with the undefeated Bears.
Brown's go-ahead goal came with 15 minutes left in the second half as Hans Wittusen tapped the ball into an open net. The opportunity arose after Brown's Gary Hughes headed a corner kick towards the far post. After a struggle in front of the net, Wittusen became open and put the ball into an empty corner while Big Green goalkeeper Matt Nyman '99 was caught up in a heap of players in the goal box.
Any chance for a comeback by the Big Green was severely hampered when team captain John Bosacco '96 received his second yellow card of the half and an automatic ejection after he ran into a Brown player at midfield with eight minutes remaining in the half. That gave Brown a man advantage for the rest of the game and stymied the Big Green's offense.
With the score tied 1-1 early in the second half, the Big Green had numerous opportunities to take the lead, but came up short in each attempt. The best opportunity arose when starting Bear goalkeeper, Tim Webb, who was later replaced, let a Bosacco shot roll through his legs and towards the corner, but a Brown defender blocked an August [Auggie] Lopez '97 shot on its way toward the net.
A second opportunity came off of a lead pass to Bosacco from midfielder Methembe Ndlovu '97, but Bosacco's shot sailed just high over the far right post. The Big Green outshot the Bears 6-4 in the second half and 15-11 in the contest.
"The second half we had two or three clear-cut chances in front of their net that should have resulted in goals," Meyer said. "To not score on any of those chances and then watch them score on their only chance of the half was really frustrating."
The Big Green tied the score at 1-1 with seven minutes left in the first half after Bosacco directed the ball out of traffic to the corner of the box to Bobby Meyer '99 who drilled a shot into the back of the net for his second goal of the year.
Brown had opened up the scoring 15 minutes earlier after Gary Hughes knocked home a ball off of a corner kick.
"We played hard for 90 minutes, and that is all you can ask, especially for such a young team," Bosacco said. "It was our best game of the year. We fought hard for balls and really dominated the game I thought. We just got unlucky by not being able to finish some of our opportunities."
The Big Green's next contest is Wednesday at Boston College, and then they will return home to play Princeton Saturday in a women's and men's doubleheader.
"We should have beaten Brown by a couple of goals, and they are the sixth-ranked team in the nation," Meyer said. "Although we lost, we now know that we can beat any team in the nation. If we can maintain this level of play and finish our opportunities, then should be able to win the rest of our games, and just hope that Brown stumbles somewhere in their league schedule."
