By Max Sass, Sports Editor
The men's soccer team was crowned co-champions of the Brown Soccer Classic in Providence, RI this past weekend after defeating Yale and drawing with Brown. The Pride defense was stout, keeping clean sheets in both matches.
The back- to–back shutouts gave junior goalkeeper Greg Cumpstone his twelfth and thirteenth career shutouts, tying him for second all-time in school history with Bill Murphy. Cumpstone recorded three saves in the win against Yale and four to hold the draw against Brown.
The defense, comprised of senior captain Erik Rengifo, junior captian Tom Bekas, freshman Shaun Foster and sophomore A.J. Laza helped Cumpstone keep the Pride's opponents off the board.
"The keys to keeping both Brown and Yale off the scoreboard was all on good solid team defense," Bekas said.
Freshman midfielder Chris Griebsch scored his first career goal and the only goal of the tournament for the Pride when he struck against Yale. Griebsch's shot hit the lower right corner of the Yale goal and gave the Pride a 1-0 lead in the second half.
The Pride missed a number of opportunities including a shot by sophomore Mike Annaruma that hit the post. The Bulldogs hit a post as well in the second half.
The win was the team's second of the season, evening their record at 2-2, soon to be 2-2-1 after the draw with Brown.
"I'd say our fitness was a big key in the win," Bekas said. "It started to show by the end of the first half and we capitalized in the second half on it."
Griebsch's goal was only the third of the season for the Pride through five games. "I think the good news is we had some chances," head coach Richard Nuttall said, "the bad news is we aren't finishing them."
Bekas agrees that the scoring drought is not a worry. "I feel like we are having a bit of a hard time scoring because we have such a young attacking core and inexperience is playing a bit of a role," he said. "Once we start gelling it's going to be a problem for team to keep us off the scoreboard going forward."
The Bears of Brown matched the Pride's fitness in the second game of the tournament and significantly outshot the Pride. Brown had a 15-10 advantage in shots, including 4-0 in overtime.
Brown has not lost yet this season (2-0-2) and reached the second round of last year's NCAA Tournament. Both Nuttall and his junior captain Bekas agreed that this weekend's results were important for the team. "I think it was massive to be honest," Nuttall said.
Bekas said, "I feel as if this weekend is huge for us moving forward. Even though it was a co-championship at the Brown Tournament it's a championship nonetheless. Confidence is a big key to how a team performs and we are becoming more and more confident game in and game out and I could see us going on a little run going into CAA play."
Senior captain and defender Erik Rengifo (18) battles a St. Peter's player for a header. (Sean M. Gates/ The Chronicle)