Brown 2, Princeton 1 (OT)

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When Brown and Princeton meet in any event, there seems to be a culture clash of sorts, and it often leads to an especially heated battle. Now when you put Brown and Princeton on the soccer field and make it an Ivy League opening match, you have the recipe for an especially spicy salsa.

In a match filled with several truly classic moments, Brown eventually emerged victorious. Nick Elenz-Martin scored the winner in OT, and Jarrett Leech earned the victory in goal. The Bears are now 1-0 in Ivy League play and back in the habit of winning.

Here is your post-game report:

Minutes 1-39 – The two teams scrap and battle and kick and fight with typical Ivy League game vigor. Players from both teams swarm the ball, leading to lots of turnovers. It might not be pretty, but it certainly is spirited.

40th minute – Princeton plays a ball over the Brown back line. Goalkeeper Jarrett Leech leaves his penalty area and decides to play it safe, blasting the ball out of bounds. Enter Coach Ryan Levesque’s U-13 Bruno United team, stage left sideline. For the record, the Bruno U13 boys are very good at soccer (4-0-1, 1st place in MAPLE Division 1). But they are even better at ball boy-ing. As Leech makes contact with the ball, one of the lads is already in position and tosses his hot potato to an onrushing Princeton player, who immediately chucks it inbounds. A teammate spots Leech out of position and lobs a first-time shot over his head. It curls up and away, toward the goal, and eventually rolls into the open net. Leech stands with his hands on his hips, coaches and fans consider the bittersweet irony of the goal, and the scorer’s table credits the ball boy with an assist. 1-0 Princeton.

46th – 86th minutes – Brown controls the match and creates a number of good scoring chances. Princeton’s backline, however, stands strong.

87th minute –A corner kick lands in a mess of people. Princeton is unable to clear as a brief scramble ensues, and the ball eventually falls to midfielder Chris Roland. Roland, whose typical warm-up involves shooting the ball as hard as he can before stretching, fires the ball on goal. It finds its way through traffic, perhaps taking a slight deflection, and powers into the side netting. Given Brown’s crescendo of forays, it seems like the kind of equalizer that HAS to lead to a winner. 1-1 tie.

90th minute –Brown wins a throw-in with 0:01 left on the clock. The referee blows his whistle, puts both hands above his head to stop the clock, and announces to an oddly silent stadium that, “Because Brown’s BALL BOYS got the ball to Princeton so QUICKLY on their GOAL, I’m going to add 15 seconds to the clock for this throw-in.” Princeton’s bench goes totally and completely bananas, as well they should. Where, they demand, is this rule?!? The referee looks it up in his internal rule book (located in his lower right gut) and ignores their protests, showing them a palm to suggest they settle down. The scorekeepers look at each other and shrug their shoulders, then obligingly add 15 seconds to the clock. Fortunately for the game and the referee, Brown does not score on the throw-in.

(OT) 98th minute – Like a delicious flank steak marinated in soy, Worcestershire, honey, ginger and lemon juice (try it), the ball rolls to Nick Elenz-Martin on a proverbial silver platter. Licking his freckled chops and trying not to get TOO excited, the talented midfielder connects, launching the hunk of meat from 25 yards. His drive spirals, screams across the face of the goal, beats the goalkeeper, ricochets off the underside of the crossbar, bounces down, and bounces back up into the net. It is, literally and figuratively, a golden goal.

And it just might have saved a 13 year-old boy’s life.

Final Score: Brown 2, Princeton 1 (OT)
Overall Record: 7-1-1
Ivy Record: 1-0-0
Next Match: Wednesday, October 10th vs. Boston College