Nashville, Tenn. – Junior Miles Fenton netted a pair of goals and redshirt-senior Ben Hale registered six saves as Furman men's soccer blanked Belmont, 3-0, to claim the school's 21^st Southern Conference regular season championship on a windy Tuesday evening at E.S. Rose Park in Nashville, Tenn.
 
The victory improved the Paladins to 7-1-0 overall, 5-0-0 in SoCon play and secured the No. 1 seed for Furman in the SoCon Men's Soccer Championship. Belmont fell to 5-2-2 overall and 2-2-1 in league play.
 
Furman took the early lead just 15:29 into the match. With the gusting wind at his back, Fenton took advantage of a turnover in the midfield and laced a knuckling shot from nearly 40 yards out that caromed off of the hands of Belmont's goalkeeper and into the net. In the 34^th minute, sophomore Shaun-Chris Joash drew a foul while settling a pass near the top of the box. Redshirt-senior Cole McLagan stepped up to take the free kick and curled his effort into the upper left-hand corner from 20 yards out at 33:30 to double the Furman lead.
 
Belmont looked to have pulled a goal back in the 63^rd minute, but Jack Shaw's shot was waved off by the offside flag. Furman put the finishing touches on its victory less than 10 minutes later when Fenton collected a failed clearance about 25 yards out and lined a shot off of the inside of the right post for his second tally of the night to up the margin to 3-0. 
 
Each team recorded six shots on target while the Bruins held a 15-9 advantage in total shot attempts. Hale, who was named SoCon Defensive Player of the Week earlier in the day, made two key saves in the first half and added another sprawling stop in the second half to record the Paladins' third consecutive clean sheet. Drew Romig stopped three shots for the Bruins.
 
The regular season title is the second straight for the Paladins and their first outright championship since 2007. Furman has won 11 of its 21 regular season championships under head coach Doug Allison.
 
The Paladins close the regular season at Stone Soccer Stadium on Thursday versus Wofford at 7 p.m.
 
This year's SoCon Men's Soccer Championship will include just the top four teams in the final regular season standings with the top two teams hosting semifinal round matches on the weekend of April 9-10, and the top remaining seed hosting the league championship match on April 17.