NASHVILLE, Tenn. – An up-and-down affair filled with plenty of emotions versus visiting University of Illinois Chicago resulted in Belmont University men's soccer's first Missouri Valley Conference draw Saturday night at E.S. Rose Park. Junior defender
Case Cox registered a hat trick and scored the match's game-tying goal in the 89th minute, preserving the Bruins' home unbeaten streak with a 3-3 result.
Belmont (5-1-3, 2-0-1 MVC) held a two-goal lead in the first half following headers from Cox, but the Flames (3-4-2, 1-1-1 MVC) scored three consecutive goals to take a 3-2 lead with just over 30 minutes to go.
Extending their home undefeated streak to 15, the Bruins went up 2-0 within the first 17 minutes of action thanks to senior midfielder
Jansen Wilson's connections with Cox. UIC would score its first goal of the evening with four minutes left in the opening half, before finding the back of the net in short order after 50 minutes of play.
A free kick from the left corner taken by Wilson with under two minutes remaining led to Cox's tying score in dramatic fashion. Cox nearly headed in his third goal directly off the free kick, but the ball smacked to top crossbar. Awaiting the high rebound off the crossbar, senior defender
John Bannec headed the ball off the miss back to Cox, who had made a hastily recovery off the ground. Cox swung in his third score with just over 100 seconds left, knotting the match at three goals apiece.
Tallying the second-most shots on goal in a match this season (8), Belmont posted 14 total shots and created nine corners, including five second-half corner kicks. The Flames had 11 shots, six of which were on target, and six corners. After UIC earned five corners in the first 45 minutes, the Bruins limited the Flames to a single second-half corner kick.
In his first match back after three-and-a-half weeks on the sidelines, Cox notched four shots and scored on all three of his shots on target. Wilson racked up a team-high five shots, three of which were on goal. Graduate goalkeeper
Nate Logan, the reigning MVC Defensive Player of the Week, came up with a trio of saves.
It took less than four minutes for Belmont to find the back of the net as Cox converted Wilson's first corner of the evening, the first corner kick by either team. After another Bruin corner, Wilson found Cox once again for a scoring header just over 16 minutes in.
An improbable 41st-minute goal by UIC made it a one-goal match when the Flames' Aaron Nguyen gathered a ball that had been headed out of the box and sent in a right-side upper 90 strike from about 40 yards out.
A cross by UIC's Brian Perez on a breakaway found a sliding Josh Torres inside the six-yard box in the 54th minute, tying up the contest at 2-2.
A few minutes later in the 59th minute, the Flames took a 3-2 lead on UIC's lone corner kick of the half. Ricardo Avalos fed Perez, who skipped the ball to Pau Mateo for the go-ahead goal.
Both teams nearly punched in a game winner in the closing minute with the Flames' Andres Lemus hitting the inner right-hand post and freshman forward
Brock Kiper getting a left-footed stab as time expired.
Of Note
The tie is the Bruins' first against UIC. Belmont entered the match 0-5 versus the Flames. The Bruins' home unbeaten streak dates back to March 30, 2021, and Belmont has outscored its opponents 24-8 during that span. Getting a result in 17 of their last 19 home matches, the Bruins are 20-7-6 at Rose Park since the start of the 2018 season. The three goals allowed are the most at home since Belmont was defeated 3-0 by Furman on March 30, 2021. Cox's hat trick is the first by a Bruin since senior forward
Liam O'Brien accomplished the feat nearly one year ago to the day, scoring a trio of goals at Virginia Military Institute on Oct. 2, 2021. The last Belmont player to record a hat trick at Rose Park prior to Saturday was former forward
Niccolo Dagnoni, who did so in a 3-3 draw with Wofford on Oct. 12, 2019. With two more Saturday, Wilson owns a team-best six assists on the season. He is among national leaders in both assists per match and total assists.
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Up Next
The Bruins return to match action at Rose Park Wednesday when Belmont hosts Evansville for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN+. Next Saturday, the Bruins begin a three-match road trip at nationally-ranked Missouri State.
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