In their final home match of the season, the Bob Jones University men's soccer team continued their hot streak and extended their winning streak to eight games with a 4-0 victory over Southern Wesleyan University.
With today's win, the Bruins sit at 8-3-1 on the season. Six of their last eight wins come as clean sheets as the Bruins' backline have successfully kept their opponents out of the back of the net. In addition, the men's soccer team has been on a goal-scoring spree as they have scored 31 goals through the past eight wins.
"I'm thrilled with tonight's win," said Head Coach Greg Fulton. "We've got to the end of four games in a week with four wins. I can't be more proud of the team to get it done on senior night. It's big for us. These are the games that give us a benchmark of where we're at and prepare us for what we're going to see at a regional and national tournament."
Today's match started out with a ceremony honoring seniors Andrew Buckley, Nathan King, Gasheed Lareche, and Luke Morcos for their hard work and commitment to the team over the past years.
"The maturity that happens between a freshman and a senior year is almost unexplainable to see how they grow," said Fulton. "It's subtle, you don't see it all at once, but over four years you look back and see how far they've come. We're going to miss them and we hope that their time here was special. We feel strongly that these guys are going to go out and change the world, and we're just a small piece of that."
As the game got underway today from Alumni Stadium in Greenville, South Carolina, it was a back and forth effort from the Bruins and the Warriors as both teams battled for the opening goal. Less than 10 minutes into the match, the Bruins would see one of their first real goal-scoring opportunities as a misplaced pass by the Warriors perfectly set up Conley Burk to go one on one with the SWU goalkeeper. Goalkeeper Wesley Bigbee made the initial block but as the ball was deflected, the SWU defense came up big to stop Rylan Boldt from scoring on an empty net.
Then with just under 25 minutes remaining in the first half, Conley Burk would score for the Bruins as Gasheed Lareche's initial shot was deflected setting up Burk with the perfect scoring opportunity. The Bruins held on to the 1-0 lead as both teams went into halftime.
After the break, the Bruins continued the attack early with a shot from Jake Provenzano that sailed high just above the cross bar. But a minute later, another misplay by the Warriors' defense sent the ball right to Mario Figueroa who dribbled the ball into the box and right past the goalkeeper to double the lead for the home team.
With 25 minutes left in the match, a couple of big plays by Chris Monczewski and James McCarty kept the Warriors off the board and the Bruins still leading 2-0.
A perfectly placed pass across from James McCarty set up Mario Figueroa once again to send the ball into the net giving the Bruins the 3-0 lead and Figueroa his second goal of the night.
As time began to wind down, the Bruins took advantage of one more opportunity to score as Sam Gaddis sent the ball forward and across to Rylan Boldt who got around one defender and sailed the ball into the far top corner to seal the deal for the Bruins. With the 4-0 win, this became the second consecutive win against Southern Wesleyan University in their eight-game history.
Up next, the Bruins will take a business trip to Jacksonville, Florida where they will face NCCAA South Region opponent Trinity Baptist College on Saturday afternoon.
