By Kyle McDonald OREM, Utah – The UNLV Rebels used a dominating defensive effort to shutout the Mercer Bears 2-0 on Friday afternoon in the opening match of the Holiday Inn Express Invitational on the campus of Utah Valley University. The loss drops Mercer to 2-3-0 on the season and is the third straight win for the Rebels of UNLV. “We have only been able to get two shutouts this year,” UNLV Head Coach Rich Ryerson said. “You can’t win championships if you don’t shut people out.” It was a physical game from the start that saw four players pick up yellow cards including three from UNLV. That physicality is what won UNLV the game as they only allowed two shots on goal. “Mercer is a very strong team,” Ryerson said. “Athletic in the back and very dynamic in the front so I was extremely pleased that the guys got the shutout.” Blake Balelo put the Rebels on top in the 42nd minute when he took a rebound on a shot by Corey Ackley and put it in the lower left corner of the goal to make it 1-0. It would stay 1-0 until late in the match when Bradley Kamdem put a laser into the back of the box on a set piece to put the final tally at 2-0. “Bradley works very hard on his set pieces,” Ryerson said. “He hit it well and he hit the post and the cross bar last year about six times so it was nice to see him put one in.” Although he allowed two goals, Mercer goalkeeper Jeremy Booth also had nine saves on the day including two in the second half that kept the Bears close. “He made two point blank saves,” Mercer Head Coach Brad Ruzzo said. “That’s why he is playing for us. We’ve always had good goalkeepers and he continue that tradition and we’re very confident in him.” UNLV will look to make it four straight wins when they take on Bradley on Sunday morning with kickoff at 10:30 a.m. MT. Mercer will look to bounce back as they take on host UVU in the final match of the Holiday Inn Express Invitation. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. Contributing content from Utah Valley University.
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