Box Score
by John Hackney
WILSON, N.C.- Conor Wells, Breck Collins and Zack Wertis scored second-half goals Wednesday night to lead Belmont Abbey College to a 3-1 Conference Carolinas men's soccer victory over host Barton College.
Abbey rose to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in league play while Barton fell to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the conference. The Bulldogs travel to Tusculum College for a 2 p.m. match on Sunday.
With his team trailing 3-0, sophomore Barton sophomore midfielder Dante De Luca finally got the Bulldogs on the board when he rocketed a penalty kick into the lower left corner of the goal in the 77th minute.
De Luca leads Barton with five goals on the season.
Abbey's first goal came off a corner kick from freshman Ty Haddock. He looped a ball to the near post that junior Wells flicked with his head inside the far post at 56:10. At 59:50, senior forward Timmi Borges Da Silva made a run to the goal line on the right side and a racing Collins ripped his cross into the lower left corner for a 2-0 lead.
The Crusaders' final goal came in the 76th minute when Wertis scored from point-blank range off a double assist from senior Eric Amaya and freshman Tarik Amon.
Belmont Abbey finished with an 18-10 advantage in shots and an 8-2 margin in shots on goal. Starting keeper Jordan Junot had to make no saves in raising his record to 2-0 in almost 73 minutes in goal. Philip Bru allowed one goal and notched one save in the final 17-plus minutes.
For Barton, freshman Vasily Yakimkin of Russia collected five saves.
Abbey committed 11 fouls, compared to eight for Barton, and received three yellow cards.
