Brown Bears
Overall Rank: #38
Conference Rank: #1 Ivy League
Brown Team Page
After an Ivy League championship in 2011, Brown pulled back a bit in the standings last fall as Cornell and Dartmouth found their way to the top two spots in the league, respectively. All was not lost for the Bears, as they were in the Ivy League hunt right up to the end of the regular season. The NCAA tournament was almost as successful, as only Maryland stood in the way of a third straight trip to the sweet 16. Brown has been quite successful at men’s soccer as of late with seven trips to the tournament in the last eight years. There is no reason to believe Brown won’t make it eight out of nine, and who knows if another Ivy League title will be around the corner? A tough schedule will test the Bears’ mettle.
2012 Record: 13-3-3, 4-1-2
2012 Postseason: NCAA tournament (lost to Maryland, 2-1, in second round)
Coach: Patrick Laughlin
Strengths:
The nice thing about Brown’s offense is the fact it doesn’t rely on one scorer to do all the damage. Brown contributed 28 assists last year while other teams only had 12 during games against the Bears. Top scorer Ben Maurey only had five goals last season and finished with 12 points and 41 shots taken. He is back to guide an offense that has suffered some graduation losses. Brown’s overall record was the 12th best in the country, guided by a solid scoring offense (83 goals total). Because some of the starters graduated, Brown has been actively recruiting new freshmen to come in and take over as replacements. This leaves Laughlin with a roster of 26 players, which should help if the team struggles to score or find chemistry in 2013. Laughlin has plenty of replacements from which to pick a solid roster.
Weaknesses:
Although Brown had one of the best save percentages in the country last year, not to mention a solid goals-against average, most of that was accomplished with Sam Kernan-Schloss. He has also graduated, but replacement keeper Mitch Kupstas saw a little bit of action in 2012 and got plenty of chances to study how Kernan-Schloss operates. Offensive leaders such as Bobby Belair, Dylan Remick and Thomas McNamara are gone, but the club has recruited some quality freshmen to take over the load. Still, the biggest problem will be goalkeeping until Kupstas proves he is up to speed in net, as well as finding a few goal scorers or strong assist players to bolster the roster and keep everything diverse.
Final Projection:
Brown’s skills will get tested quickly thanks to a very tough non-conference schedule that includes Providence, Washington and Indiana. This is the type of schedule that will make a team stronger entering Ivy League play, and most people project Brown as the favorite to win the Ivy entering the 2013 campaign even with all of the losses it has endured. A class of seven incoming freshmen will help the transition be a little easier. All of the freshmen have significant club experience, and they should be ready for the battles of Division I soccer. While Dartmouth expects to be Brown’s challenger once again, if the freshmen jell as expected and the club finds some backups to replace the missing goal scorers then the Bears should be back in the postseason come November and December.
Projected Postseason: NCAA
Returning Leaders:
Goals: Ben Maurey, Junior, F, 5
Assists: Voltaire Escalona, Senior, F, 5
Shots: Ben Maurey, Junior, F, 41
Saves: None
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