The Belmont Abbey men's soccer team was defeated 3-0 by the visiting UNC Pembroke Braves this afternoon at Alumni Field. The Braves improve to 4-3, while the Abbey slips to 4-4.

The Crusaders outshot the Braves 9-7 and held a 7-1 advantage in corner kicks but the Braves received the only goal it would need in the 14th minute. Michael Bornhorst sailed a free kick from the left flank to the right goalpost, where Miguel Ferrer headed the ball to the center of the net, right to the feet of Brendan Cook, who tapped it in for a 1-0 lead.

That was the score through the end of the first half and until the 58th minute when Carlos Cipriano scored the first of his two goals as he blasted home a free kick from the left flank into the upper right corner of the net to extend the lead to 2-0.

12 minutes later Cipriano scored again when he chased down a through ball and got behind the Abbey defense and fired home a shot at the 79:23 mark to close the scoring.

Abbey goalkeeper Bryan Alenky made one save in the net while Braves netminder Horatio Bynes made four.