Bruins win Independent Tournament with 2-0 win over Park

OMAHA, Neb. – The eighth-ranked Bellevue University Bruins defeated ninth-ranked Park University, 2-0, in a frozen match on Saturday evening at Tranquility Park in Omaha, Nebraska. Bellevue took the season sweep of Park improving to 14-3-1 on the season winning their 11th straight at the visiting Pirates will go to 11-3-3 overall. Bellevue will be an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament opening round on November 22 as Park University, because of their high longo points, is almost assured an at-large bid.

Bellevue University got the scoring stared in the first half on a Tom White cross. The pass across the frame looked to have been meant from Tom Garrick, but fooled not only the Park keeper and most fans, the ball sailed over the head of Garrick and to a ‘running-in-the-air’ Mark Heath-Preston who placed it in the back of the net taking a 1-0 lead.

The score remained the same through halftime (1-0) until the second half in the 56th minute. Mark Heath-Preston was able to get the ball on the defensive third of Park, turned and went to goal leaving a pass across the box to Tom Garrick scoring the second and final goal.

With time winding down, the Bruins were assured their place in history by qualifying for the national tournament, the first of any in men’s soccer history since their induction in 1995.

Mark Heath-Preston led Bellevue with 7 shots, 4 on goal, recording his team-leading 17th goal as Adam Hooi (Omaha, NE) had 4 shots. The Bruins finished with 17 shots on the evening as Sebastian Narvaez started the match playing 17 minutes before going down with injury. The shutout will be shared with his replacement, Luke Baxter, playing 72 minutes in goal with 4 saves. Bellevue closed out the match with 30 fouls compared to 8 of Park and one corner kick.

Park University had 3 shots from James Katajwa, 2 from Tazou Ali Tagba and two others for the teams 7 total shots. The Pirates were shutout for only the third time all season, the other against Lindsey Wilson and Baker. Michael Eade had 5 saves in the loss playing all 90 minutes in goal.

Bellevue and Park will await the pairing, seeds and times for the NAIA National Tournament opening round on Sunday evening. The NAIA website (www.naia.org) will have further details concerning the post-season of these two teams.