Thursday, October 07, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Mercer men's soccer team continued its impressive play on the road with its biggest win of the season, downing 29th-ranked University of Alabama-Birmingham 1-0 on Wednesday evening at West Campus Field.

The victory improves Mercer to 6-2-1 and is the squads' first win over a ranked opponent during third-year head coach Brad Ruzzo's tenure. UAB drops to 6-4 overall after the loss.

The teams finished with an even 9-9 shot count, but the Blazers did hold a slight 5-4 edge in corner kicks in the contest.

The Orange and Black controlled the tempo for the majority of the first half, but failed to put a shot in the back of the net against the Blazers. The Bears best scoring chance of the stanza came in the 33rd minute of play when sophomore Richie Edmondson sent in a beautiful diagonal ball that freshman Joshua Ball collected, but fired high over the crossbar. 

Both teams went into the locker room at half with the game tied at 0-0. The Mercer defense did a great job of holding the highest scoring offense in the country to just five shots in the period.

Mercer's offensive pressure finally paid off in the 74th minute when a run forward by sophomore Joey Heavner forced UAB to foul him in the box for a penalty kick opportunity. Cameron made sure he didn't hit any posts this time, burying a shot low and right to give the Bears 1 -0 lead.