Brown did everything it could to make it onto the field this season. It arrived on campus for a two-week quarantine in January, practiced since February and even had a game in the first half of April fall through.

And when the Bears finally got to play Boston University on Friday, no one — least of all coach Mike Daly — would have been stunned if Brown followed the same spirited-but-sloppy script as so many other teams did early this season.

Instead, Brown rolled to a 12-5 victory, keeping the Terriers to two goals in the first three quarters. Faceoff men Matthew Gunty and Matt McShea were a combined 16 of 21. Veteran goalie Phil Goss made 11 saves. Eight players scored, as the Bears had little trouble dispatching a solid, mid-pack Patriot League team.

“Going into that game, pretty much all we talked about was navigating the energy and the emotion and what we felt were going to be some ups and downs,” Daly said. “That was probably the biggest surprise, frankly — how clean that game was for our guys.”

Now the question becomes when Brown gets its next chance, an issue that has hovered throughout the spring as the program has gradually moved through the Ivy League’s phased return.

Daly figured the Bears would have gotten at least two games in by now. They were scheduled to play Holy Cross on April 10, but the Crusaders’ pause (and subsequent shutdown of the season) scuttled those plans.

“You go through all of that to get there knowing you have a hard date with Holy Cross and then that doesn’t happen,” Daly said. “We actually kept the officials scheduled and did an intrasquad [scrimmage] that day, and that was competitive and exciting and the guys definitely showed up and handled that. It was one up, three downs. It seemed like we’d make one step of progress and then two or three rounds of disappointment.”

Brown also hoped to play Boston University again this week, but the expansion of the Patriot League tournament snarled that idea.

Daly said the Bears are planning to play as late as May 8 or May 9, the final weekend of the regular season. But that’s contingent on an opponent becoming available.

Brown was also tripped up this spring by the same thing that limited Penn: An Ivy League rule that stipulates not only that a team can’t travel more than 40 miles from campus, but that it can’t bring an opponent in from beyond a 40-mile radius.

“If we could have anybody on this campus, there’s no question we could have put together an eight-, nine-, 10-game schedule,” Daly said. “That was the really confusing restriction that we still really haven’t gotten an answer on.”

Friday’s rout could be the Bears’ only foray against outside competition this spring. But given the wait, Daly is impressed with how his players handled an often frustrating few months.

“Incredible credit to our guys and our seniors for keeping the whole thing together,” Daly said. “I promise it hasn’t been perfect. We’ve had our ups, our downs, our moments of disbelief and losing faith. But these guys have taken it all, and I think we’re better for it.”