Wednesday, March 17
Tulsa 2, Memphis 0
Tulsa scored two second half goals for a 2-0 win over the Memphis Tigers Wednesday night at the Hurricane Soccer and Track Stadium. The Golden Hurricane moved to 3-1-1 on the season, while the Tigers fell to 1-5 overall.
After a scoreless first half, Tulsa scored its two goals within the first 20 minutes of the second half coming from Alex Meinhard and Ben Barkley. The shutout recorded by Lucas Cline was his third of the season and second straight, while he has gone 218 minutes without allowing a score.
Meinhard ended the game's scoring drought when he knocked through a penalty kick into the lower right corner in the 55th minute of the game for the 1-0 Tulsa lead. The goal was Tulsa's first since early in the second half two games ago at USF and it was Meinhard's team-leading fourth tally of the season.
"We were frustrated with our last game of not getting a goal. I thought it was a good ball play through to Alex and he made a good run. He obviously got taken down, but did a good job of finishing it with the penalty kick," said Tulsa Head Coach Tom McIntosh. "Our movement in the second half from our front players was much improved. Our connection was much better at midfield."
Tulsa's Ben Barkley took a pass from Malik Henry-Scott and knocked through a goal from six yards out to put the Hurricane ahead 2-0 in the 65th minute.
"Our second goal was a really good goal on the break between Ben and Malik and Malik back to Ben. Ben came in and played really well and gave us a good connection between our midfield line and front line. I thought that was really good to see," added McIntosh.
In the first 45 minutes Tulsa attempted the only shot on goal, coming at the 13:37 mark on an attempt by Will Edwards. The Hurricane came close to getting the game's first score nearly 10 minutes later when Meinhard's shot was blocked, going just left of the goal.