The men's soccer team extended their winning streak to four games after the Bob Jones University Bruins beat their south region rival Pensacola Christian College 1-0 from Alumni Stadium Saturday night. With tonight's victory, the Bruins remain undefeated in region play and have improved to 4-3-1 overall this season.
"We're pumped to win tonight. It's always a close match against Pensacola," said Head Coach Greg Fulton. "We knew we had the edge tonight, we just had to finish and fortunately we got one in."
Fans can always count on a good game when Pensacola Christian College comes to town, and tonight was no exception. Both teams entered tonight's contest looking to continue their winning ways with both the Bruins and the Eagles sitting on a three-game win streak. Through their last three wins, the Bruins had put away 13 goals and shutout each of their opponents. PCC also kept their opponents off the score sheet in their last three games, but only put four goals through those three games.
As the first half got underway both teams looked for an early scoring opportunity. Seventeen minutes in, the home team would see one of their best chances of the first half. Bryce Ramler chased the ball forward but the Eagles keeper came out to make the initial save. Ramler got possession once again and headed the ball towards the net, but a heroic play by the Eagles defender kept the Bruins off the board.
A few minutes later the Bruins would see another great opportunity as Bryce Ramler again set up Ian Arendse for a beautiful shot outside the box. PCC goalkeeper Adam Lund looked to push the ball up and over the net, but it would just narrowly hit the cross bar and Lund would easily make the second save.
Just a few minutes later, PCC would look to respond with their own opportunity off of a free kick, but their attacking player just missed a header at the back of the net to keep the score knotted at zero.
The Bruins kept attacking until the whistle, but after 45 minutes of action the game remained scoreless as the teams went into halftime.
As the second half got underway, the Bruins applied pressure early and saw several good chances to put the ball in the back of the net. In the 65th minute, the Bruins set up for a corner kick. Peter Waddy took the corner and sailed the ball on target where a Pensacola player got a touch on it to get past Lund, putting the Bruins on the score sheet and giving them the 1-0 advantage.
Both teams continued to battle throughout the rest of the match with both sides seeing great saves and defensvie plays, but the Bruins were able to hold on to the 1-0 lead and keep their win streak alive.
"We have momentum," said Fulton. "We're grinding out games, we're winning games with multiple goals, and we finally have more wins than losses. We look at next week as three separate games and we're going to push for three wins, but we set the expectations that we're in a marathon and not a sprint so we'll take it game by game."
Up next, it's another tough game as the Bruins host Carolina University on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
