Central Arkansas soccer edges Bellarmine in ASUN road match

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Central Arkansas men’s soccer earned a 2-1 road win over Bellarmine, and goalkeeper Merrick Cook made a big stop late in the game.

The senior turned away a penalty kick in the 78th minute.

UCA didn’t have an easy finish. The team played the final 29 minutes a player short, but it still found a way to hold on to the win.

Cook finished the game with five saves. His penalty-kick stop was the one that kept the Bears ahead 2-1.

The 6-foot-2 senior has been playing well, and this was another strong game.

The win moves the team to 5-2-1 overall. It also keeps UCA unbeaten in ASUN play at 2-0. That’s two conference games and two wins.

All three goals came in a nine-minute stretch around halftime. Sophomore forward Maxim Sheenkov scored first. Bellarmine’s Gavin Crowe tied it.

Sophomore midfielder Vaclav Kozeny then made it 2-1. Nobody scored after that.

The Bears took the lead back four minutes after Bellarmine tied the game. Kozeny scored his fourth goal of the season on a pass from Sheenkov.

That goal came in the 53rd minute and turned out to be the game winner.

Sheenkov had opened the scoring in the 44th minute. His shot came from deep in the Knights’ third of the field and ended up in the net.

That gave the team a 1-0 lead before halftime.

Kozeny and freshman Danny Nava each got credit for an assist on that goal. It was the first assist this season for both players.

It also was the first of Nava’s college career. He’s listed as a defender and midfielder.

Knights answer early in second half

Bellarmine tied the game in the 49th minute. Crowe scored after the Knights got a fast chance down the near side of the field.

It was the only goal Bellarmine scored.

Junior defender Logan Smith worked hard to stop the shot. He just barely touched the ball. That wasn’t enough to change where it was headed, and it went into the net.

The score stayed 1-1 for just four minutes.

After Kozeny’s goal, Bellarmine had to chase the game, and the match sped up. The Knights needed just one goal to tie it.

Then, in the 61st minute, UCA was down to 10 players.

Down a player, the Bears stayed calm and took the speed out of the game. Bellarmine had trouble making good chances.

The Knights found room down the near side, but they couldn’t get passes to work in the middle of the field.

Senior defender Joseph Mwamba helped, too. He made two important stops on defense against Bellarmine attackers, and both plays cut off scoring chances.

The first half looked very different. Neither team could make many chances near the other goal early on.

Kozeny tried to find freshman defender Kyle Schwartz with a pass across the Knights’ back line, but a Bellarmine defender cleared it away.

The game went back and forth for a while. Then UCA settled in and began to control the ball as the half wound down.

The Bears will look for a third ASUN win when they host Jacksonville on Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.

The match will stream live on ESPN+, and live stats will be online. That’ll be the next test for a team that hasn’t lost in ASUN play.