Brown 3, Penn 0

The #4 ranked Brown Men's Soccer Team tacked on another win Saturday as they dismissed the Penn Quakers 3-0 at Stevenson Field. Darren Howerton '09, Laurent Manuel '08 and Kevin Davies '08 tallied for the Bears, who improved to 11-1-1 overall and 4-0 in the Ivy League. Freshman Paul Grandstrand '11 earned the shutout in goal, making several fine saves along the way, and remains undefeated on the season. The Bears continue tonight when they travel to Rutgers for their final non-conference match. Kickoff is set for 7 pm.

Now, here is your post-game report:

During the week - The boys discover that Facebook can be used for something OTHER than looking at 613 pictures of some cute girl from Engin 9 who they are too afraid to talk to. They create a Facebook Event called "#4 Brown Soccer vs. Penn" and invite virtually the entire school (including, we assume, the girl). It appears to pay dividends, as the stadium side of Stevenson is full on a wet Saturday night during Parents Weekend, when most students just go out to dinner with their folks. Hey, bring home the National title and that girl just might write on your Facebook wall, guys.

Pre-game: Penn arrives at the field mascot-less and angry, perhaps because of this video. Well done, Brown students!

1st minute - Brown comes out of the gates like a pack of racehorses that has been cooped up for too long. The first fifteen minutes are all Brown.

23rd minute - Penn clears a corner kick from its own penalty area and Jon Okafor hammers a volley from 30 yards. The phrase "it was rising all the way" is used way too much in soccer and is almost never true, but in this instance it actually is true. Okafor's blast beats everyone cleanly, rises toward the upper right corner, goes just wide, and bends the metal support pole behind the net. Which reminds me, Stevenson now has those World Cup style nets--you know, the ones you and I always wanted.

42nd minute - Left back Steve Sawyer throws the ball forward to striker T.J. Thompson, who controls it and lays it off to left midfielder Darren Howerton, who is "underlapping" him. As the keeper advances, Howerton takes one touch and slots a quick left footed shot past him. It's that easy. 1-0 Brown.

63rd minute - With his typical insouciance, Nick Elenz-Martin saunters forward with the ball. A beaten Penn defender grabs a handful of jersey and goes water skiing, leaving Nick to look something like this. Elenz-Martin shrugs him off (literally) and cuts across the top of the box, where Laurent Manuel magically sprouts from the ground like a French Lilac and fires a low left-footed shot past the Penn keeper. A confused Elenz-Martin looks around, wondering what underground vault Manuel was hiding in, while the goal scorer runs around smiling like a sweaty French kid with a popsicle, and then performs the Thierry Henry double knee slide. 2-0 Brown.

82nd minute - T.J. Thompson collects the ball and runs across the top of the box. As defenders close him down, he holds onto the ball for what seems like too long. As Kevin Davies criss crosses with him, Thompson back heels to Davies, who takes a quick touch, nutmegs a Penn defeder, and fires into the net from ten yards out. Cheeky! 3-0 Brown.

90th minute - The final whistle blows and Brown salutes fans on both sides of the pitch. Their onward march continues.

Overall Record: 11-1-1
Ivy Record: 4-0-0
Next Game: Wednesday, October 31st @ Rutgers

Addendum: My post on national rankings and how they work has been updated to include the NCAA's RPI rankings (Brown is currently #5). This is the system used to seed teams for the NCAA tournament. Click here to read more.