Belmont Abbey freshman defender Conor Wells broke a 1-1 tie with a goal in the 69th minute as the Crusaders men's soccer team upended the Carson-Newman Eagles 2-1 this afternoon at Alumni Field. The Abbey, winners of six of its last seven, improves to 8-5-2, while Carson-Newman, ranked sixth in the Southeast Region and as high as 18th nationally two weeks ago, fall to 9-4-1.

The Eagles outshot the Crusaders 14-6, but two of the Abbey's goals found the back of the net as Jose Penaloza opened the scoring early, as Matt Dolan got free in the right side of the box and sent a cross to the center, where Penaloza tapped a low, slow roller past Jordan Moore and into the net at the 2:55 mark.

1:06 later, Carson-Newman gained the equalizer, as Daniel Zitt sailed a long throw in to the center of the box to the head of Robert Hill, who redirected the ball just inside the right post to knot the match at one.

Both defenses dominated the rest of the first half and into the early part of the second half, until the Abbey broke through with the game winner. After an Eagles foul, Gianluca D'Agata set up a free kick 20 yards out and to the right of the penalty area. He lifted a high arcing pass to the goal mouth, where Wells beat his man and headed home the winner past Moore.

The Eagles offense began to assert themselves, controlling possession in the Abbey third, but the Crusader defense turned away each opportunity, including one in the final ten seconds as a Carson-Newman shot went just wide with three seconds left.

Abbey goalkeeper Sergio Ramirez made seven saves, five coming in the second half. Moore collected a pair. Both teams finished with five corner kicks apiece.