EVANSVILLE, Ind.—Twenty-seven seconds.  That was all it took for University of Evansville senior forward Ian McAuley and the Purple Aces to turn a close match into a 4-1 UE victory over Belmont on Friday night at Black Beauty Field in Evansville.

McAuley scored two goals within 27 seconds of one another in the second half to help Evansville build on a one-goal lead and propel the Purple Aces to their first victory of the 2007 season.  Evansville now stands at 1-2-0 heading into Sunday’s 3:00 p.m. home match against Valparaiso at Black Beauty Field.

“His entire career, Ian has infused great energy into our program,” said UE head coach Mike Jacobs.  “That is exactly what he was able to do tonight, not only for this game, but also for this season.

“Overall, I was really pleased with the effort our guys gave tonight.  Aside from giving up an early goal, I thought that we played well, and hopefully, we will be able to build off of this result on Sunday against Valparaiso.”

Belmont opened the scoring in the seventh minute, as midfielder Justin Mooneyhan headed in a rebound off of the post into an open net to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.  Evansville would knot the score at 1-1 14 minutes later, as junior defender Kipp Erskine was able to redirect a corner kick from Kieran Purcell into the back of the net for his first goal of the year.

Evansville would score again off of a corner kick in the 33rd minute, as sophomore forward Stephan Minyono collected in a header from Sam Bornstein and blasted a shot past Belmont goalkeeper Ron Gravely from 12 yards out to give UE a 2-1 lead. 

McAuley would finally give UE a comfortable lead in the 54th minute, as he looped a shot from 25 yards over top of Gravely’s head to give UE a 3-1 lead.  McAuley then came back 27 seconds later with a goal-scoring header from eight yards out off of feeds from fellow seniors Cory Elenio and Dustin Awe to provide the final margin of victory.

McAuley paced Evansville’s offensive attack with two goals on three shots off of the UE bench, while Elenio added a pair of assists.  Evansville out-shot Belmont 17-11, including a 10-3 edge in the first half.

With the victory, Evansville improves to 1-2-0, while Belmont falls to 0-3-0.  UE will return to action next on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. as the Purple Aces will welcome the Valparaiso Crusaders to Black Beauty Field.  Sunday’s match can be heard live in the Tri-State area on 91.5 F.M.-WUEV.