The Belmont men's soccer team had never begun its Atlantic Sun slate undefeated after three games until Sunday afternoon, as Belmont (7-4-1, 2-0-1 A-Sun) defeated East Tennessee State (4-7-0, 0-4-0 A-Sun), 4-0, at Brentwood High School in Brentwood, Tenn.
The first goal of the contest was scored in the 27th minute when sophomore Justin Hay (Toronto) won a free ball in the penalty box area and pushed home his second goal of the season.
Belmont scored its next three goals in the second half. Freshman Dan Meacock (Sarasota, Fla.) scored his fourth goal of the season in the 52nd minute by gaining possession of a ball outside of the penalty box area from an ETSU defender and chipped his shot past the goalkeeper for the tally.
Senior Navarda Heath (Montego Bay, Jamaica) earned his first goal of the season in the 53rd minute with help from freshman Alex Davis (Rockwall, Texas) to make the score 3-0 in favor of the Bruins. Davis placed a free kick just to the right of the box through the ETSU defense and to an open Heath who shot into an open net for the score.
The final tally of the contest came from freshman Will Moorad (Brentwood, Tenn.) who continued his excellent homecoming to Brentwood, Tenn. with his team-leading fifth goal of the season in the 78th minute. Meacock, who earned credit for the assist, his second of the season, gained control of a free ball and chipped it forward to a cutting Moorad who pushed his shot over the charging ETSU goalkeeper into an open net for the score.
Junior Janrai Gravely (Dallas) made a season-tying high seven saves in the contest for Belmont for his second shutout of the season. Belmont now has five shutouts total on the season, one away from tying the single season record of six which it has achieved three times, in 2003, 2004 and 2007.
Belmont outshot ETSU in the match, 17-13; however each team attempted six corner kicks. The Bruins continued to use their depth throughout the match and used 20 players for the second consecutive contest. Two defenders, freshman Austin Embry (Southlake, Texas) and sophomore T.J. Brown (Hendersonville, Tenn.) each played 90 minutes in the contest as well as junior Wade Wonderlin (Franklin, Tenn.).
The match was also senior Cyrus Eaton's 65th match of his career, which places him only one off of the Bruins' top-10. Carlos Macioch (1997-2001) and Ryan Trogien (1999-2002) each played in 70 matches in their career and share the all-time Belmont record.
"Today was a great effort for us," said Belmont head coach Earle Davidson. "We played hard and got the result we deserved. I'm happy that we're finishing our scoring chances and gotten off to a great start in A-Sun play before our tough road trip coming up."
The Bruins will return to action on Oct. 16 against conference foe Mercer in Macon, Ga. starting at 6 p.m.