Bruins fall short but go toe-to-toe with #14 Columbia

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A 16^th minute strike by Guy Baskerville was the lone offense on Tuesday evening as the Bellevue University men's soccer team fell to #14 Columbia College 1-0.

Columbia remains unbeaten in their last five games, improving to 5-1-3 overall while BU dips back to the .500 mark at 5-5-2.

Leading up to the first goal, Columbia played a long ball out of the box in behind the BU defense. Luke Hynes turned that into a shot and won a corner after Taariq Ganga tipped it over the endline.

Nick sent the ensuing corner to the back post for Guy Baskerville who got down and headed the ball back across the goal for a 1-0 lead.

BU briefly looked to have leveled in the 22^nd minute but a foul negated the ball finding the back of the net.

Columbia held a 1-0 lead at the break with Bellevue's most dangerous chance coming of the foot of Giovani Lima Soares who sent a long-range volley dipping on goal but Alejandro Molto Munoz punched it over the crossbar to keep the Cougars in front.

Bellevue nearly equalized in the 47^th minute with Alvaro Moros Sanz getting space in the box but rattling the crossbar with his shot.

In back-and-forth action, Brandt made a move moments later but Ganga came off his line to detour the shot out of bounds for a corner.

Columbia saw a near-miss in the 57^th minute with Nathan Durdle's attempt drawing iron off the post.

A flurry of activity in front of the Cougar goal in the 80^th minute for the Bruins saw shots from Ombeni Mubake and Soares stopped before Antonio Capra's follow up sailed wide for a goal kick despite a BU protest for a corner.

Molto Munoz finished with five saves for Columbia and Ganga made six stops for Bellevue as BU out-shot their hosts 14-12 on the night despite being out-shot 7-5 on goal.

Bellevue travels to Hannibal, Mo. on Saturday, Sept. 30 for a 1 p.m. match against Hannibal-LaGrange University (2-2-2).