EVANSVILLE, Ind. – No. 8 Missouri State scored a season-high four goals to surge past Evansville with a 4-1 victory here Tuesday night at Arad McCutchan Stadium.
 
The Bears (8-0-0, 7-0-0 MVC) recorded a pair of goals in each half before the Purple Aces (0-7-1, 0-5-1 MVC) broke up the shutout in the 80th minute.  As the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season champions, MSU kept its perfect 2021 record intact while winning its eighth straight match and earning its seventh league victory.
 
Boasting a ferocious all-around attack, the Bears launched a season-high 26 shots to continuously pester the UE defense and opposing goalkeepers, Jacob Madden and Matt Bryant, with their relentless assault.
 
MSU's attacking forwards combined to notch the first goal of the game as Aadne Bruseth slipped one across the UE goal that skimmed off the cleat of Jesus Barea and onto Nicolo Mulatero who was there to poke in the first of his two goals of the match.
 
With the first half coming to a close, Bruseth found himself with an opportunity at the left edge of the Purple Aces box and the Norwegian forward struck an absolute laser that deflected off Madden's hands and into the back of the net to give MSU a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.
 
In the 58th minute, it was Mulatero again on the receiving end of a scoring opportunity as he corralled a pass from Kian Yari to notch his second goal of the match.  It was Mulatero's second multi-goal performance this season after recording a pair of goals against Drake on March 22.
 
Despite being on the wrong end of the one-sided tilt, the Purple Aces did produce a highlight-reel moment for their home crowd with Pablo Guillen sending a one-touch strike over the top of goalkeeper Harry Townsend who could do nothing but watch the perfectly-placed ball bow into the net and trim the MSU advantage to 3-1.  Townsend was seeing his first action of the season after relieving starting keeper Michael Creek who held UE scoreless in his 78:36 minutes of action.
 
The Bears' offensive outburst wasn't done yet though as Josh Dolling picked up his first goal of 2021 in the 86th minute after Joel Peterson sent a cross that found Dolling's head and the senior forward bumped it into the back of the net to seal MSU's 4-1 win.
 
The four goals tonight were the most Missouri State has scored since its last outing at Arad McCutchan Stadium on Oct. 5, 2019 when the Bears won by a 4-0 margin.
 
Bruseth, who was named MVC Offensive Player of the Week earlier today, registered a goal for the second straight game and added his fifth assist of the year and added his fifth assist of the year.  Barea paced the team with six shots in the match and earned an assist on Mulatero's opening goal.  While being in excellent form all season long, Dolling's goal was the 22nd of his career, tying him with Heath Melugin (2008-11) for seventh on the program's all-time list.
 
Missouri State concludes its three-game road slate with a non-conference match at Central Arkansas on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.