It was an in-state battle on Thursday night when the UConn men’s soccer team took down the Central Connecticut Blue Devils, 1-0, continuing their undefeated streak.
It didn’t take long until the Huskies put themselves on the board first. Six minutes into game time senior forward Austin Brummet knocked the ball in, off a turnover from Central Connecticut off a dish from Charlie Holmes.
“I wanted to try and get some more shots off in these extra games and Charlie [Holmes] did a great job of pressing the center back and getting a touch on it,” Brummet said in an interview on the UConn+ broadcast, “It fell at my feet and my first instinct was just have a strike at goal.”
It seemed as if Brummet’s goal lit a fire underneath both the Huskies and Blue Devils with both programs getting various opportunities to equalize the score or increase the lead.
Just a mere 10-or-so minutes later, the Blue Devils had a chance to equalize the score at one.
In the 18th minute, junior defender Trevor Rau attempted to knock the ball past UConn’s Kyle Durham, but the shot resulted in a block from the Huskies.
Durham, a goalkeeper, has been a tremendous asset to Connecticut’s roster in their 2025-26 campaign.
In his red shirt freshman campaign, Durham has only allowed two goals in the last four games, boasting a GAA of 0.50. One could compare this to the Huskies GAA from last season thatfifth in the NCAA last season at 0.72.
In the 28th minute, Durham continued his heroics for the Huskies blocking the Blue Devil’s primary equalizing opportunity after Central Connecticut’s Santiago Marin Gutierrez came up too short.
Along with Durham, on the other side of the pitch, Central Connecticut’s goalkeeper Cristian Torres was also the catalyst for his squad’s defensive success to keep the Huskies at one goal.
In the waning minutes of the first half the Huskies had an opportunity to add another goal to the score board from Brummet, but Torres managed to make the save with his cleat, despite diving in the opposite direction of Brummet’s attempt.
Heading into the second half of the match, the score would stay 1-0, Huskies, despite both teams getting multiple opportunities.
“It’s certainly a game they still have a chance in,” head coach of the Huskies, Chris Gbandi said in an interview on the match’s UConn+ broadcast, “They’re just going to put numbers behind the ball. So, we got to figure it out pretty quickly here.”
After halftime, the Blue Devils took Torres out of the game and replaced the goalkeeper with junior Grady Wilson.
Throughout the second half, both teams each had good looks looking to add to the score, but the Huskies ultimately had the upper hand utilizing Durham to their advantage, defensively.
In the 63rd minute, Brummet made his third goal attempt of the goal, but it ultimately crashed at the top of the goal box.
Both teams still went back and forth throughout the game, up until the match was down to the wire and the Blue Devils got their best scoring opportunity of the game.
In the 87th minute, junior Anthony Catanzaro attempted to challenge Durham at the net but did not put enough power on the ball for it to reach past the goalkeeper.
After his fourth consecutive start of the season, Durham finished the night with five saves.
Ultimately, after the attempt, it was a done deal for the Huskies.
This win for the Huskies marks their third shutout in the last five games to kick off their 2025-26 campaign.
“It was nice for me to get that early goal, so we had that one goal cushion, but unfortunately probably should have had two or three, but, you know, we live and move on to the next one.” Brummet said postgame to the broadcasters on UConn+
The Huskies will continue their homestand this weekend, with a duel against the Colgate Raiders on Sunday afternoon. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. from Morrone Stadium. If Husky fans cannot make it to the pitch, the match will be available to be streamed on UConn+.