After a Sept. 10 loss to Clark University, the men's soccer team rebounded last Wednesday night, dismantling Worcester Polytechnic Institute 5-0 in their home opener. Judges goalkeeper Blake Minchoff '13 made five saves against the Engineers, helping Brandeis earn its third shutout of the season, and move to 3-1 on the year.

The Gordon Field sideline seats were filled to capacity, with 150 people venturing out to watch the Judges take on WPI. The opening few minutes were uneventful as both teams tried to win the midfield battle and establish a rhythm to their play. Brandeis had the first scoring opportunity of the game, a free kick by midfielder Joe Eisenbies '13 that WPI junior goalkeeper Jeff Wong tipped over the crossbar.

Eisenbies' shot changed the tone of the game, allowing the Judges to press forward and create several more opportunities. Brandeis finally broke through in the 16th minute, with midfielder Steve Keuchkarian '12 playing a low cross into the penalty area that midfielder Kyle Feather '14 redirected into the net for his third goal of the season.

"[Keuchkarian] does what he does best and takes on three or four guys and gets to the sideline and makes it kind of easy for me," said Feather. "He just put it right on my foot and made it an easy finish."

Brandeis held on to a 1-goal lead for the remainder of the first half. From the start of the second half, the Judges were more offensive-minded, especially defender Ben Applefield '14, who took on a more expressive role and provided overlapping runs on the left flank. Applefield would come out of defense to help attack and nailed a goal early in the second half.

In the 52nd minute, Applefield made his way out of defense and took possession in WPI's penalty area. Applefield faked past one defender and then shot a low, hard drive past Wong to stretch the lead to 2-0.

"Their defenders were pretty big physically, but you could be a little shifty with them and beat them with speed," said Applefield of his first goal of the season. "I was able to cut inside and had the ball and shot it and finished it well."

Midfielder Theo Terris '12 added another goal just 2 minutes later, heading in a 30-yard free kick from midfielder Lee Russo '13. The team's third goal provided the opportunity to drop back and close the game out, but Brandeis pressed on and looked for more goals.

In the 79th minute, forward Tyler Savonen '15 came on as a substitute and found himself behind the defense after controlling a feed from midfielder Matt Peabody '13. Savonen went one-on-one with Wong and unloaded a shot into the back of the net for his second goal of the season. With 8 seconds left in the match, forward Nick George '14 scored the fifth goal of the match by converting a feed from midfielder Tudor Livadaru '14.

"Every player on this team is a key component to winning, and anyone at any point in time can come in and make a difference," said Feather. "[Savonen and George] have been scoring goals, and they've just been helping us out."

Coming off of a poor offensive effort against Clark, the Judges' midfield looked comfortable against WPI, stringing together many promising passing sequences that led to many scoring opportunities. In addition, the men's soccer team has been helped offensively by the first-year and sophomore classes, which accounted for nearly half of the team's total goals scored.

Applefield believes the Judges have regained their composure after their struggles against Clark. "It's always a positive to score goals," finished Applefield. "Obviously, you need to score goals to win the game, so we were happy to finish a lot of the chances we created. We were hoping to bounce back and put the game against Clark behind us and just move on, and that's exactly what happened. We have a lot of momentum going forward."

The Judges will look to build upon their success this Saturday at 7 p.m. in a match at Babson College.