Official Stats
Jackson, MS-Offense was the name of the game Tuesday night at H.T. Newell Field as the Belhaven men's soccer team held on to beat Lambuth University 6-4. The Blazers, who are ranked 19^th in the latest NAIA Top 25 Poll, scored the first four goals of the game but had to hold off a late charge by the Eagles to secure the win.

                                      

It didn't take long for Belhaven (6-2-1) to score the first goal of the contest as Aaron McLoughlin fired the ball past Lambuth (3-4-1) goalkeeper Brett Borm to make it 1-0 31 seconds into the match. Stefan Fernandez got the assist and it was McLoughlin's second goal of the year. Exactly seven minutes later, Juan Rodriguez scored the first of his three goals in the contest extending the Blazers lead to 2-0. John Kehoe got the assist on the play.

 

The Belhaven offense kept the pressure on and cashed in on another goal in the 23^rd minute. Fernandez, who had an assist on McLoughlin's goal, found the back on the net for the second time this season off an assist by Rodriguez. Belhaven kept it rolling with their fourth goal of the game just seconds later when Rodriguez and Kehoe teamed up to drive another shot into the net. Rodriguez earned his second goal of the game and Kehoe his second assist of the night.

 

At that point, the Blazers seemed to put things in cruise control a bit and late in the first half Lambuth was able trim the lead and get back into the game. The Eagles picked up goal number one off the foot of Ross Brady in the 42^nd minute and just over a minute later struck again on a goal by Marcelo do Valle. All of a sudden, the Blazers saw their lead cut in half at 4-2 as the horn sounded to end the first period.

 

Belhaven came out in the second half and quickly built a three goal lead thanks to Rodriguez's third goal of the night. It is the second time Rodriguez has turned a hat trick this year with the first coming against Texas College on September 12^th. The assist went to Fernandez which was his second in the game and second of the season.

 

The Eagles however would not go away as they fought back with two more goals to pull within one of Belhaven. Lambuth's Juan Garzon answered the goal by Rodriguez with a goal of his own less than a minute later making the score 5-3. Then in the 60^th minute, Garzon got around the Belhaven defense for the second time and shot the ball past Blazer goalie Gautier Troch who had come in for an injured Zach Wallace. At that point, the score was 5-4 with plenty of time remaining in the game.

 

Both defenses tightened up over the next few minutes and Troch came through with a big save on a header attempt by Daniel Rowlands, which at the time kept Belhaven in front 5-4. In the 85^th minute, Belhaven was able to tack on an insurance goal on McLoughlin's second score of the night. Rodriguez got the assist after his shot off the post ricocheted and landed in a good position for McLoughlin to slice it into the net. The score gave the Blazers a 6-4 advantage and they held on for the final five minutes to get the win.

 

As a team, Belhaven outshot Lambuth 19-18 in total attempts and 11-10 in shots on goal. Wallace improved to 6-2 in net for the Blazers playing the first 58 minutes with goals allowed and four saves. Brom suffered the loss for the Eagles playing the first 62 minutes allowing five of the six Belhaven goals while notching four saves. Brom received a red card in the second period and Brett Koziczkowski came in to play the final 25 minutes.