Official Stats
Dayton, TN-The Belhaven men's soccer team bounced back on Saturday night at the Bryan College Invitational with an impressive 2-0 shutout victory over the host school Bryan College after having lost to top ranked Bethel College (TN) the night before. The Blazers picked up single goals in the first half and late in the second half to earn the victory in what proved to be a very physical contest. Both teams combined to commit a total of 35 fouls.

 

Belhaven (1-1) struck for their first goal with just over 10 minutes gone by in the first half on Juan Rodriguez's second goal in as many nights to put the Blazers up 1-0. Jose Morales set up the play and was credited with his first assist in 2009. Belhaven had another opportunity to put another first half goal on the board. However, Bryan College (1-2) goalkeeper Rodrigo Pigatto made a great save turning away a penalty kick off the foot of Rodriguez to keep the Blazer lead at 1-0. The Lions outshot Belhaven in the first half 7-4, but the Blazer defense led by goalkeeper Zach Wallace kept Bryan out of the scoring column. Wallace recorded three of his five saves in the first 45 minutes of the match.

 

Bryan College fought hard to stay in the game in the second half keeping the Belhaven attack at bay until late in the period. With 2:56 to go in the game, Aaron McLoughlin gave the Blazers some breathing room by getting the ball past Pigatto for the games second goal. It was McLoughlin's first goal in 2009 and John Kehoe assisted on the play earning his second assist of the season.

 

The Lions were unable to attempt another shot the rest of the way as the Blazers held on for the 2-0 win. As a team, Belhaven had a total of 10 shots in the game with six of them being on goal. The Lions attempted 12 shots in the contest with five on goal. All of the attempts were kept out of the net by Wallace who had five saves on the night. Pigatto notched four saves for Bryan in net.

 

Offensively, Rodriguez kept the pressure on the Lions defense the entire night attempting a game high four shots including a score with two shots on goal. McLoughlin made his only shot attempt of the night count with the late second half score.