Postgame Altercation After Men's Soccer's Battle of the Boulevard Win
Belmont’s men’s soccer team kept the Battle of the Boulevard trophy on the north side of Belmont Boulevard, defeating rival Lipscomb University 2-0 on Tuesday.
The Bruins’ third consecutive victory over Lipscomb came in front of a packed crowd of 853, which became a crowd of 854 after a postgame altercation.
“I think Lipscomb has got to be one of my favorite games,” said graduate midfielder Ethan Schlegel. “We call them our little brother, and they come, and brothers fight, but we got out with the win.”
With five yellow cards and one red card between the two teams, there was plenty of brotherly fighting.
“There’s the first trophy that you get to play for all year, and there’s not a whole lot of love lost between these two teams,” said Bruins’ head coach David Costa.
Belmont improved to 4-1-2 against Lipscomb under Costa, who was impressed with what he saw out of his team in the rivalry game.
“To come out and perform that way in front of our crowd, to shut them out, to score a great goal down a man, it was a fantastic way to wrap up the night,” said Costa.
The crowd was rewarded early in the match when senior Lucas Wolthers broke free in the 5th minute for the game’s opening goal.
Sophomore Jaxon Stokes later doubled the lead with a goal of his own, but the referees called Belmont for offside and waved the goal off. After a Belmont challenge, the call was upheld.
So, heading into halftime, the Bruins remained up 1-0.
However, in the 70th minute, Belmont went down a man after senior Nathan Ferguson’s second yellow card earned him a red card and an early end to the game.
“The first one, I think he was getting pushed around pretty badly by a center back, and the ref wasn’t protecting him,” said Costa. “The ref didn’t like how he responded to it, and then I think he had his eyes on him after that, so I don’t think the second one was a yellow.”
Instead of letting Lipscomb seize momentum, the Bruins responded with a goal in the 79th minute by sophomore Nzuhri Biggar to go up 2-0.
Belmont held on from there, securing its first shutout of the season and freshman goalkeeper Brody Sucher’s first career shutout.
Sucher dazzled with a couple of full-extension saves in the 60th and 64th minutes, which were part of his career-high seven saves.
“I think he was really disappointed that against Mercer he had a goal that he conceded that maybe was a little bit on him,” said Costa. “Then, he just responded, and that’s what guys with great character who are high performers do.”
With the victory, Belmont tipped the all-time series in its favor, 13-12-4.
While the Bruins celebrated on the field after the game, one member of Lipscomb’s soccer team took a different approach.
Kylian Karsenty, a freshman Bisons player, made his way toward members of Belmont’s student section and confronted them after the match.
In particular, Karsenty had something to say to Noah Stevens, the president of Belmont’s official student section, the Motivational Organization of Belmont, better known as the M.O.B.
“He comes up and starts talking to me. Obviously, I’m elevated on the stands, and I try to dap him up and say, ‘Hey, good game, no hard feelings,’ and he grabs my hand and tries to pull me,” said Stevens.
“He’s like motioning with his head for me to come down and be on equal level with him.”
Stevens opted to remain in the stands, so Karsenty jumped the fence and made his way into the crowd.
“He comes up, gets in my face, and he puts his hand on my cheek. I wouldn’t call it a slap, but he kind of patted my cheek with a little bit of emphasis,” said Stevens.
Stevens said he wasn’t hit hard, but that things escalated from there.
“My buddy gets in between us to get in his way so nothing worse happens, and he like sidearm shoves my friend out of the way,” said Stevens. “That’s when the Belmont officer came up, and kind of grabbed his arm, and he shoved the officer away too.”
Someone he assumed was a Lipscomb manager came, got Karsenty out of the stands and took him back onto the field, away from the crowd, said Stevens.
Additionally, nothing the student section said that was aimed at Karsenty crossed any line, said Stevens.
“We weren’t even saying bad things. We were just kind of yelling and jeering at him whenever he made a mistake, and then commented on his haircut,” said Stevens. “There was some swearing that happened behind me, and I shut it down real quick because we’re not going to do that.”
Despite the flare-up, Stevens and the student section won’t be pressing any charges because, as he sees it, “he’s young, he’s hot-headed and we’ve been chirping at him for 20 minutes straight. It’s understandable that he’s mad. We don’t want to make this a big thing.”
Stevens admitted he’s going to try to change the student section’s approach to taunting opposing teams.
“I think in the future, I’m going to try to have us not focus on one whole player every time we talk about the other team,” said Stevens.
“I mean, obviously, our first goal is to cheer for Belmont and support our players. We don’t go to the game just to demoralize or make the other team angry, but it is something that we do.”
This article was written by Sam Dicus
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