LIVINGSTON, Ala. – Liam Ireland's first goal of the season proved the difference maker as the sophomore scored his first career game-winner in the 26^th minute to lead the University of West Alabama men's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Union University in Gulf South Conference action at Tiger Stadium Friday.

The win improves West Alabama to 4-4-1 overall and puts the Tigers tied for first with Alabama Huntsville in the GSC standings at 3-0. Union suffered its first conference loss, falling to 4-5 and 2-1.

"We had a fantastic performance tonight," said UWA head coach Matthew Thorne.

"It was a battle up to the very last second. It wasn't the cleanest game, but we stopped them from getting any chances when they started really pushing at the end. It's another big conference win for us, but now we will focus on the next one."
Ireland's goal was his second of his career and came from his only shot of the night, as the Tigers went on to out-shoot the Bulldogs 9-6.

"Lliam has been making shots, like the one tonight, all week in training, but it was good to for him to finally get one on the score sheet," Thorne said.  

"There were a lot of strong individual performances, but we always look at the overall team performance which we were delighted with. Union came in with a lot of confidence with an upset over West Florida, so to beat them with a clean sheet, we will take that any day."

UWA goalkeeper Joshua Bramwell (3-1-1) picked up his third shutout of the season in his fifth start. He finished with two saves. Matt Kesier (4-3) failed to make a save to take the loss.

West Alabama will look to maintain its top spot in the league standings when it plays host to Christian Brothers University on Sunday. The match will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium.