Men's Soccer Tops North Florida 2-1 In Overtime

Will Moorad

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Belmont men's soccer team (4-7-0, 1-2-0) came back from a 0-1 deficit to top North Florida (1-6-0, 0-2-0) by a score of 2-1 in overtime on Friday night.  The Bruins snapped a three match losing streak and tallied their first win in Atlantic Sun play.

Junior Will Moorad (Brentwood, Tenn.) recorded the game-winning goal in the 96th minute of play, beating the UNF goalkeeper in a one-v-one situation.  Freshman Nico Olsak (Boca Raton, Fla.) recorded his fifth assist of the season on the score, playing it behind the Osprey defense.  Freshman Cody Stratton (Fort Worth, Texas) received the pass from Olsak but dummied it through his legs, which allowed Moorad to finish it.

"We played like champions in the second half," Head Coach Earle Davidson said.  "We made them defend.  We had a bunch of great opportunities.  We had a few dangerous crosses that forced their keeper to make plays on, and we finished two off to get this much deserved win."

North Florida got on the scoreboard first when Greg Crowell scored off of a deflected free kick in the 18th minute of play.  Assisted on the play by Austin Doyle, Crowell gave the Ospreys a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.

"We used a lot of guys in that first half," Davidson said.  "The guys that came in off the bench in the first half did a great job picking things up for us.  They really made an impact and set the table nicely for us to pick things up in second half action."

Sophomore Brandon Tarr (Knoxville, Tenn.) notched his fourth goal of the season, as he tied the match in the 76th minute of play.  Stratton played a long ball to junior Dan Meacock (Sarasota, Fla.) behind the UNF defense.  Meacock then found Tarr, who beat the Osprey's keeper to make it 1-1 with 14 minutes left in regulation.

The two squads finished comparably in both shots and corner kicks.  North Florida outshot Belmont by a mark of 13-10, and recorded six corners to the Bruins' three.  The Ospreys' Tyler Willets tallied four saves in the match, while BU finished with five stops in just over 95 minutes of play.  Junior Juho Illi (Villahde, Finland) and sophomore Lou Manning (Southlake, Texas) split time between the net, recording two and three saves, respectively.

Belmont will next stay in Jacksonville to take on the Dolphins on Sunday at 12:00 p.m.  BU will then return home for three straight matches.  Lipscomb comes to Whitten Soccer Complex on October 14, followed by ETSU and USC Upstate on October 22 and 24, respectively.