UCF continued to dominate this week in college men’s soccer. Photo by Vikram TKV on Unsplash
UCF (12-1-2, 5-0-1 The American) won its final regular match of the season 3-2 in overtime against Stetson at home on Oct. 29. The Knights conceded about halfway through the first half as Stetson forward Alex Turner scored the first goal of the match. It took until the 51st minute by forward Hattabiou Barry for the Knights to score and equalize the match, his second goal in 14 appearances. UCF gained the lead in the 80th minute when defender Andres Hernandez crossed the ball into the penalty box from a corner kick that resulted in a Stetson defender attempting to clear the ball but managing to put the ball in the back of his own net. Nearly five minutes later Turner scored again, marking his third goal of the season, to secure his brace and equalizing the match once more. The game went into overtime, where in the first half both sides didn’t manage to score the golden goal. However, less than a minute into the second half, forward Cal Jennings scored the winning goal, marking his 12th goal in 15 appearances.
Following its overtime victory last Tuesday, the Knights won 1-0 over Memphis (10-5, 4-2 The American) at home on Friday. The majority of the match remained goalless regardless of UCF’s six shots in the first half compared to Memphis’ two; however it took until the 85th minute for midfield substitute Gianluca Arcangeli to score, marking his third goal in 13 games. The Knights became champions of the regular season for the second time in a row and will host the semifinal and championship matches of the AAC Tournament.
SMU (13-1-1, 4-1-1 The American) hosted UConn (4-11-1, 1-5 The American) on Friday which resulted in a 1-0 victory for the Mustangs. SMU’s only goal came early on in the match in the sixth minute when defender Henrik Bredeli put the ball in the back of the net, his second goal in 15 appearances, after receiving the ball from midfielder Knut Ahlander’s corner kick. The match was in SMU’s favor in the first half as they had seven shots compared to UConn’s three, though the second half saw an action-packed fixture as both the Huskies and the Mustangs nearly had an even amount of shots and had seven fouls each. SMU is currently second in the conference while UConn is seventh in the AAC standings.
Cincinnati (5-10-1, 1-4-1 The American) is currently on a four-game losing streak as they lost 4-0 away against USF (9-5-1, 3-3 The American) on Saturday. Bulls defender Javain Brown scored the opening goal of the match in the sixth minute, his third goal in 14 appearances. Following Brown’s goal USF was awarded a penalty in which forward Adrian Billhardt scored his second goal in 14 appearances and gave the Bulls a 2-0 lead. USF was able to score once more before the end of the first half in the 42nd minute when defender Johnathan Rosales scored the third goal of the match. USF would end up scoring again in the 73rd minute as midfield substitute Trey Jackson put the ball in the back of the net with the assists coming from defender Freddy Gil and midfielder Steven Rudderham. The Bearcats are currently in sixth while the Bulls are in fifth in the conference standings.
Temple (7-6-2, 3-1-2 The American) traveled to Tulsa (4-9-2, 0-5-1 The American) on Saturday which resulted in a 0-0 draw. While no goals were scored, the match did see a few close ones as the Golden Hurricane had three shots in the first half but Temple goalkeeper Simon Lefebvre blocked all three. The second half was even as both sides had six shots taken, however four of the six by Temple were saved by Tulsa goalkeeper Bryson Reed compared to Temple’s one save. In the 80th minute however, defender Brandon Johnson was given a red card which not only brought the Owls down to 10 men, but one less defender as well. In the first half of overtime, both sides only managed to have a handful of shots. In the second half Tulsa had seven shots compared to Temple’s zero, but still weren’t able to put the ball in the back of the net against a 10-player side. Temple is currently in fourth while Tulsa is at the bottom of the conference standings.
David Sandoval is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at david.sandoval@uconn.edu. He tweets @sandovalduconn.
