Saturday, March 6
Temple 2, No. 2/6 SMU 0
The Temple men's soccer team (2-3-0, 2-3-0 AAC) upset the second-ranked team in the nation on Saturday night, topping SMU (3-1-0, 3-1-0 AAC) 2-0 to claim the highest-ranked win in program history. The Owls got the lead early and never lost it in an eventful match that featured three red cards, seven yellow cards, and the first penalty kick of the season for Temple.
How it Happened
> SMU had the first chance of the game, testing Temple goalkeeper Eoin Gawronski, who began his first collegiate start right, making a save off a corner opportunity.
> It didn't take long for Temple to strike, as the Owls got on the board in the 11th minute. Sean Karani started the play by sending it across the front of the net to Santiago Majewski. Majewski got the keeper out of position and headed it to Mike Eijgendaal who settled the ball and fired into the back of the net for the score. The goal was the first that SMU had allowed this season.
> SMU largely controlled the first half after Temple's score. The Mustangs got seven shots off opposed to just two for the Owls in the last 30 minutes of the first half.
> Things were quiet to the start the second until Karani drew the first red card issued in a Temple match this season. The forward was on free run towards the net before he was tackled from behind. The card warranted a PK taken by Pierre Cayet, who drove ball home to five the Owls a 2-0 lead in the 63rd minute.
> The match got chippy after Cayet's goal, with several more cards issued, including a yellow to the SMU bench.
> In the 80th minute, the Owls nearly went up 3-0 but were unable to cash in. Eijgendaal shot the ball from the left of the box where it hit the far post. Fabian Grant had the rebound saved, before the second rebound was fired just wide of the goal.
> Double red cards were issued in the 86th minute, as well as another yellow card on the SMU bench, marking a wild finish to the 2-0 contest.
Game Notes
> The win over #2 SMU marked the highest ranked victory for Temple in school history.
> Eijgendaal recorded his second straight match with a goal, and his third straight match with a point.
> The seven yellow cards called today marked a new high in the Temple season. The game also featured three red cards, the first three of the Temple season.
> Gawronski impressed in his collegiate start a clean sheet and six saves.
USF 2, No. 25/22 Tulsa 1
The University of South Florida men's soccer team picked up its second win against a ranked opponent this season, defeating No. 22 Tulsa, 2-1, on Saturday night at Corbett Stadium. In doing so, USF won its third-straight match and its first at home.
The Bulls also handed rival, and No. 14-ranked, UCF a 2-1 loss in the first edition of the War on I-4 on Feb. 20.
Freshmen Shion Soga and Brian Schaefer each notched their first career goals for USF, with Schaefer's going down as the game-winner.
Neither team could find the back of the net in the first half, as the Golden Hurricane (2-1, 2-1 AAC) went into the break with a 5-2 shot advantage over the Bulls (3-2, 3-2 AAC).
Tulsa got on the board at the 53rd minute with a header by Luke Jeffus off of a ball sent in by Chase Bromstedt. Shortly after 10 minutes had passed, Diego Guerrero slipped a pass behind the Tulsa defense to find Soga, who netted the equalizer for the Bulls.
USF took the lead in the 75th minute off a corner when Tulsa goalkeeper, Lucas Cline, failed to make a clean grab. Schaefer got the rebound and buried it home to give the Bulls the winner.
Kazuna Takase finished the night with two saves, in net for the Green and Gold, including a big stop in the second half to keep Tulsa off the board.
UCF 2, Memphis 1
The UCF men's soccer team earned a 2-1 victory on Saturday evening, it's first home win of the 2020-21 season. The triumph goes down in the record books as the 400th win in program history.
"Any highly successful team wins at home, that was the message we said to the team before the match," said head coach Scott Calabrese. "It felt great for the guys to be able to deliver on that. For us to be more defensively sound in the first 15 minutes of the match tonight was really big."
The first fifteen minutes have been the deciding factor in each of the Knights' five matches so far. UCF is now 2-0 when not allowing a goal in the first segment of the match; they came in 0-3 when allowing a goal in the first fifteen.
The Knights came out strong in tonight's first fifteen minutes, tallying a shot attempt and earning four corners. Memphis committed five fouls during that time, giving the Black and Gold a chance to run their game plan.
UCF's pressure finally cracked the tigers in the 18th minute. Anderson Rosa drove in from the left wing and fed a beautiful ball to Hattabiou Barry who got a shot on target which was saved a charging Parker Lackland. On the rebound, Andrew Lizyness was going for the loose ball and got fouled in the box as he was tripped up by Memphis' Luke Biasi, resulting in a penalty kick for the Knights. Yoni Sorokin lined up at the spot and scored from the spot to give his squad the 1-0 lead.
UCF held a slight edge in shot attempts through the first 45 minutes of the match, leading the Tigers 6-4. Matt Douglass started in net for the Knights for the second straight match and tallied a pair of saves in the first frame.
Memphis didn't get the start to the second half that they were looking for as Ntezey Swalita was shown his second yellow card of the match in the first 10 minutes. The double yellow resulted in a red card and he was disqualified from the remainder of the match. With the Tiger blunder, UCF got the chance to play up a man for the remainder of the evening.
It didn't take long for the Knights to capitalize as they struck again five minutes later. UCF worked the ball from left to right across the top of the 18-yard box before Ariel Hadar crossed it all the way back left to Barry, who made a couple of moves and sent it right through the box again. Hadar was waiting on the other end of it and punched it home to go up by two.
The Knights added another three shot attempts and had a number of scoring chances following their second goal of the evening but couldn't add anything else to the scoreboard. Memphis however, capitalized on a chance from a free kick in the 86th minute, lobbing a ball into the box that was initially headed away but was collected by Maliek Howell who finished the chance to bring the Tigers back within one.
Multiple milestones were hit in Saturday evening's match. UCF earned its 400th win in program history, a monumental achievement 46 seasons in the making. Douglass earned his first career victory in goal for the Knights and picked up three saves along the way. Rounding out the accolades was Hadar tallying his first career goal.
UCF moves to 12-7-4 all-time against Memphis and are unbeaten in their last four meetings with the Tigers. The previous 13 contests between the two sides have been decided by a goal or less.