Brad Spooner was the name of the night in an Appalachian Athletic Conference road match between the 11th ranked Bryan Lions Men’s Soccer team and Truett-McConnell University Bears. After registering a goal in each of the first two games of the season, the freshman midfielder and Norwich, England native caused a handful of problems for Truett-McConnell as he netted an early goal that allowed Bryan to lead 1-0 the majority of the game, before finding the back of the net again in the 60th minute and 62nd minute for the hat trick.
Charlie Clarke wrapped up the scoring summary for the Lions with 15 minutes remaining in the match, notching the fourth and final goal to complete a 4-0 blanking of the Bears. Bryan continues their undefeated season, improving their overall record to 11-0-2 and AAC record to 4-0-1. Truett-McConnell drops to 6-7 overall and 2-5 in conference play.
The Lions narrowly edged out the Bears in the shot count 13-12, but Bryan produced an impressive 10 shots on goal compared to Truett-McConnell’s six that were on target. Alex Horton manned the goal for the Lions, securing four saves in the outing and earning his 8th shutout of the season. Horton has compiled 50 saves this year, which ranks him 4th in the AAC in the total saves column. Including a season that has involved meetings with three teams receiving votes at the time, the 22nd ranked team, and the 10th ranked team, the Lions have allowed a mere five goals, while scoring 37 total goals versus their opponents in 2016.
At three and a half minutes after opening kickoff, Spooner was unassisted as he directed a strike past Bears’ goalkeeper, Evan Gaffney, to provide the Lions with a 1-0 lead. It would be the lone goal of the first half and wouldn’t be followed up until Kevin Roenpage tallied his fifth assist of the year when finding Spooner for a 2-0 lead at 60:41. With no hesitation, Spooner extended Bryan’s lead to 3-0 when Rafael Mentzingen was awarded his fourth assist this year after finding an open Spooner at 61:55 who capitalized on the look, completing the hat trick. The game wouldn’t be complete until Lions’ leading scorer, Clarke, managed a goal in the match, and that’s exactly what he did at 75:12 to seal a 4-0 win for Bryan, taking him to 13 goals on the year.
“I thought our guys played some really good soccer today and earned the result we were looking for,” explained Bryan Head Coach, Drew Courtney. “Truett is always a tough place to play, but our guys were focused and took care of business today.”
A challenging week lies ahead for the Lions when they return next Tuesday, Oct. 18, for a conference road game against No. 25 Reinhardt University at 3pm (Ga.) and follow it up on Thursday, Oct. 20, with a matchup at No. 8 Campbellsville University (Ky.) slated for 8pm.