#6 Tartans Win Key Battle at #17 Brandeis

(WALTHAM, Mass.) - With a 2-1 win Sunday, the Carnegie Mellon University men's soccer team stands atop the University Athletic Association (UAA) with one game to play. The #6 Tartans won their fourth straight and third straight road game with the win over #17 Brandeis and are now 12-2-1 overall and 4-1-1 in the UAA.

For the fourth time in six games the Tartans found themselves down a goal when Brandeis (15-2-1, 3-2-1) got on the board first with a goal by Tyler Savonen in the 15th minute. Robbie Lynch played a long ball into the Tartan defense and Savonen ran to meet the pass and slid it under junior keeper Christopher Madden (Reisterstown, Md./Calvert Hall).

The Tartans kept their composure and on their third shot after the Judges' goal, junior Chris Wysocki (Newtown, Pa./Germantown Academy) equalized in the 39th minute.

Junior Cole Christensen (Castle Rock, Colo./Rock Canyon) played a cross to senior John Crawshaw (Carnegie, Pa./Carlynton) who tapped it on to Wysocki who finished the shot for his third goal of the season.

A minute later, the Tartan defense blocked a shot by Brandeis' Josh Hacunda which led to the eventual game-winner by junior Max Tassano (Bala Cynwyd, Pa./Lower Merion) in the 42nd minute. Tassano's team leading 11th goal of the season came from 20 yards out and deflected off two defenders before going over the goalline for the score.

Wysocki nearly added to the Tartans' lead in the 57th minute but Brandeis keeper Blake Minchoff knocked the shot, off a cross by junior Scott Gerfen (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman), over the crossbar for the save.

The back line of senior Alex Abedian (Columbus, Ind./Columbus North), sophomore Jakob Rohwer (Southborough, Mass./Phillips Academy Andover), senior Ben Bryant (Toledo, Ohio/Ottawa Hills) and sophomore Mark Nicholas (Metuchen, N.J./Hun School of Princeton) helped keep the Judges' attempts in the second half non-threatening as Madden made two more saves for the game, including one in the 89th minute to preserve the win.

The Tartans will return home with the league title and an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament on the line Saturday, November 3 as Emory University visits Pittsburgh for a 5:30 p.m. game.