OMAHA, Neb. - Junior Jamie Henderson (Lincolnshire, England) broke a scoreless tie less than two minutes into the second half to lead the Bellevue University men's soccer team to a 4-0 victory over Waldorf College in the regular season finale for both teams. The Bruins (13-2-1, 6-0-0) claimed their fifth straight victory to complete their first perfect MCAC season since going 4-0-0 in 2010 while Waldorf falls to 4-12-0 (1-4-0 MCAC) on the year.
Prior to the match Bellevue honored their four seniors – Kristopher McFadyen (Glasgow, Scotland), Vinny Braga (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Manuel Lira (Guadalajara, Mexico), and Scott Robertson (Burnley, England) – who were playing their final regular season home games.
Henderson took a pass from junior Tobias Maertzke (Hamburg, Germany) and drove a sliding shot over the charging keeper into the back of the net in the 47th minute for his first score of the season.
The Bruins added two more tallies within the next six minutes to put the game away. Lira earned a penalty kick with a terrific run into the box and Maertzke stepped up to the spot to take the attempt. He delivered a hard shot to the middle past Erube Ponce who guessed wrong on the shot and got a hand on the shot but it had too much power and found the back of the net. Less than a minute later Lira set up Braga with an incredible no-look back-heel flick which Braga took low and hard past the frozen keeper.
Sophomore David Goolsby (Bellevue, Neb.) provided the Bruins with an insurance goal in the 64th minute. Maertzke delivered a long ball over the top of the defense from out of the back that found Goolsby in strike. Goolsby took one touch and lofted a rainbow volley over the charging Ponce and into the back of the net for his second strike of the year.
Robertson and redshirt freshman Daniel Lastra (Cali, Colombia) combined to post the Bruins' eighth shutout of the season. Robertson saved the lone shot on net he faced while Lastra recorded the first game action of his career.
The Bruins will begin their post-season quest with on Friday, Nov. 7 with a semi-final match against an opponent yet to be determined. The game time will be announced in the near future and will take place at Tranquility Park in Omaha.
