Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – It only took three touches for Belmont women's soccer to find themselves on the board in the Bruins season finale at Jacksonville State Thursday evening. BU continued to possess the ball for much of the match, earning themselves a 2-0 victory at JSU Soccer Field with help from a pair of veteran goals.
Fifteen seconds into the match senior midfielder Meg Howard (Brentwood, Tenn.) squared up to the goal and slightly tapped the ball to the right and found the back of the net, scoring the Bruins fastest goal of the season. Freshman forward MacKenzie Firek (Brentwood, Tenn.) launched a perfectly placed cross from the left sideline into the box, allowing Howard to put Belmont up 1-0 before a minute had even expired on the clock.
It took little time for the squad to double their lead as junior forward Belicia Mendiola (McKinney, Texas) received a ball from Howard and sent one blazing into goal from 20-yards out in the seventh minute. Multiple Bruins got a piece of the ball to set Mendiola up with an open look at the top of the box to give BU a 2-0 lead that would stand through the first half. BU lofted five of its first six shots on goal.
Belmont controlled both ends of the field in the opening 45-minutes of play, holding Jacksonville State to five shots and only allowing two on frame. Freshman defender Bailey Heywood (Stockbridge, Ga.) halted a Gamecock surge as they made their way down the field. With numbers favoring JSU, the rookie swooped in from behind and cleared the ball to keep the Bruins unscathed.
For the second consecutive match, Belmont switched things at half and placed freshman goalkeeper Lily Herman (Springboro, Ohio) between the pipes and moved senior keeper Stephanie Bukovec (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) to the front line. Herman settled right into her role making a one handed save as she ran back to the frame to keep JSU scoreless through 65 minutes.
Jacksonville State cut its deficit in half, 2-1, in the 81st minute on a goal from Kayla Thompson to bring the Gamecocks within one and only 10 minutes remaining.
JSU attempted to tally the equalizer on its next drive down the field, but freshman defender Skyler Hayes (Salem, Va.) stepped in front of a Gamecock attacker and dispossessed her. Hayes then cleared the ball by firing it down the field, eventually resulting the Bruins second corner of the match. From then one Belmont ran the clock out to secure the victory.
BU saw contributions from nearly the whole squad with eight different Bruins tallying at least one shot. Mendiola led the offensive efforts with three shots and getting two on goal, including the teams second goal. After starting the game with seven shots through the first 20 minutes of play, Jacksonville State held Belmont to five shots for the remaining 70 minutes.
UP NEXT
Belmont moves onto OVC tournament play as a six seed. The Bruins will play at Tennessee Tech on Sunday, Oct. 30 with kickoff slated for 1 p.m. CT.
