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Friday, Oct. 4 - Sunday, Oct. 6
Highlights
Memphis 1, UConn 0
Memphis men's soccer continued its winning ways Friday afternoon with an overtime win over UConn. The Tigers' winning streak reaches five matches with the golden goal.
Midfielder Alexandros Ierides walked in the game-winner in the 104th minute, receiving the pass from Michael Blanke on the edge of the goal. Ierides has three goals on the year, now including two game-winners. Blanke picked up his first point as a Tiger on the assist. He marks the 12th Tiger to register a point via a goal or assist this season.
With the win, Memphis moves to 2-0 in American Athletic Conference play, winning two of the four road matches the Tigers have as part of their conference slate. The 2-0 start also marks a first for Memphis as a member of the American.
Memphis outshot the hosting Huskies 13-10, putting eight shots on goal. Parker Lackland, who picked up his third shutout of the season, saved UConn's only shot on goal.
Temple 1, Cincinnati 1
The Temple men's soccer team (3-5-1, 0-1-1 AAC) battled Cincinnati (3-6-1, 0-1-1 AAC) to a 1-1 draw on Saturday evening under the lights at the Temple Sports Complex. The Owls struck first in the eighth minute, but the Bearcats responded just eight minutes later to force the conference match into double overtime.
The Cherry and White pressure paid off when they notched their quickest goal of the season in just the eighth minute. Redshirt junior Brandon Johnson buried a header off of an Esteban Suarez corner kick to secure his first-ever goal for Temple and give the Owls the early lead.
The Bearcats responded just five minutes later when traffic in the box deflected the ball to the foot of Mason Volker, who slipped it past senior goalkeeper Simon Lefebvre for his first goal of the season.
Heading into overtime, redshirt-sophomore Paul Frendach saved the day with a clearance off the goal line to keep the score even after a threatening shot by Cincinnati. Only seven minutes into the first overtime period, freshman Aly Camara hit the crossbar off a Lior Nesher corner kick and the Owls put it away with what seemed to be the game-winner, but the goal was ultimately called offsides.
USF at Tulsa
The match was called in the 67th minute on Saturday due to lightning, and was ruled as a no contest. The game will be rescheduled for a later date, starting from the beginning.
UCF 3, SMU 3
SMU erased a two-goal deficit twice and clawed their way back into the match, equalizing in the 84th minute to earn a 3-3 draw with UCF and remain undefeated this season.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair between the two sides, with the Mustangs getting a few chances but coming up empty handed. SMU (9-0-1, 1-0-1) goalkeeper Grant Makela had an answer for shot after shot in the first half before conceding the first score of the game in the 47th minute off a header in the box.
Down 1-0 and their undefeated start on the line, the Mustangs pushed forward to try and find an equalizer. In 61st minute, UCF (7-1-2, 1-0-1) had a quick counterstrike and scored to put the Knights up 2-0. But with less than half an hour left on the clock, the Mustang offense that has scored 31 times this year came to life.
Facing a two-goal deficit the 67th minute, the Mustangs won a corner kick. Gabriel Costa stepped in to take the corner and played it short to Nicky Hernandez, who then fed a perfect pass to Henrik Bredeli, who rocketed a shot past the keeper to pull the Mustangs within one. The goal was the Tranby, Norway, native's first goal of his collegiate career.
Despite having the momentum, the Mustangs would concede another goal a few minutes later when a fantastic Grant Makela save deflected right back to a UCF striker who scored, putting the No. 11/9 Knights up 3-1 in the 70th minute.
With their backs against the wall, SMU poured its players into the attacking third, and struck again in the 71st minute when Nick Taylor played the ball on net and Garrett McLaughlin snuck a foot onto the ball, scoring and bringing the Mustangs back to within one. It was McLaughlin's ninth goal of the season and the 30th of his career.
As time wound down in the highly anticipated match, the Mustangs searched for an equalizer. That moment came in the 84th minute when the reigning American Athletic Conference offensive player of the week, Gabriel Costa, dribbled through three UCF defenders in the box and was pushed down, earning a penalty kick.
Costa sent his penalty kick toward 2018 AAC Goalkeeper of the Year Yannik Oettl, who guessed right but couldn't stop Costa's shot. The ball found its way to the back of the net and after six goals and erasing a two-goal deficit twice, the Mustangs had finally equalized with the Knights.
90 minutes wasn't enough to separate the two sides, so the match moved into a golden goal OT period. With the wind at their back in the first OT, the Mustangs best chance came early in the period when Eddie Munjoma crossed a ball into the box with a pair of Mustangs waiting for the service, but the pass was cleared. Neither team would get another great chance on goal in either OT period and after 120 minutes, the two teams both earned a point after a 3-3 draw.