After dropping the past five games, the men’s soccer team snapped its losing streak with a 1-0 victory against the Buffalo Bulls Saturday evening at Rose Park.
Freshman keeper Grayson Rector recorded his fourth shutout of the year, crediting the win to Belmont’s strong defense during the second half.
“Honestly I have to give the credit to my defense. They are always there for me working hard,” Rector said. “I had one save in the first half, and after that they just made my day at work easy.”
The lone goal of the match came in the 39th minute from sophomore Alfred Edmonds with the unassisted goal off a deflection. Edmonds led the team with four shots on the night.
Belmont controlled much of the tempo and held possession early for the majority of the first half.The Bruins produced several chances attacking inside Buffalo’s box, but none were successful until Edmonds found the back of the net.
“We have been creating a lot of chances lately but haven’t been tucking them away,” Belmont coach Earle Davidson said. “To get one fairly early in the game, everyone can relax a little bit.”
After the goal from Edmonds, Buffalo tried to find the equalizer as the clock was winding down in the half, but the Belmont defense held its ground.
Buffalo would not give up during the second and took control of the possession for the majority of the half. The Bulls’ greatest chance to tie the game came with less than two minutes remaining.
However the shot bounced off the crossbar, and the rebound went wide as Belmont held on to win its first game since Sept. 28.
“It was a great performance, a very gutty and intelligent performance. We were very dangerous going forward,” Davidson said. “At the end when they took chances and pushed forward, we defended great and worked hard as a group.”
Belmont returns to the pitch on Oct. 31 hosting Incarnate Word at 5 p.m. at Rose Park.
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