Kentucky Men's Soccer Moves onto Sun Belt Tournament Semifinals
The postseason continues for Kentucky Men’s Soccer.
The Wildcats (6-6-4) took on James Madison University (8-4-5) in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Sunday night in Huntington, WV. Kentucky was given the No. 5 seed after finishing the regular season on a three-match winning streak (including victories over No. 1 Marshall and No. 2 West Virginia) while the Dukes came in as the four-seed.
The first battle between the two teams in the regular season ended in a 0-0 draw, but Kentucky was able to come out on top and move on to the next round during Sunday’s quarterfinal showdown. The ‘Cats will now look to upset Marshall — the tournament’s top seed — one more time on Wednesday in the semifinals in hopes of making the championship game next weekend.
Strong starts for both sides
The Wildcats got off to a rolling start right out of the gate. Although there were not a lot of shots that got off in the first half, Kentucky’s energy was felt throughout.
James Madison also gained some momentum early in the first half, but not before the ‘Cats were able to get on the board first in the 26th minute. The freshmen shined for Kentucky in their first scoring drive as forward Isaiah Chisolm and defender Joel Gonzalez teamed up to find fifth-year Mason Visconti driving in the box.
Visconti was able to take it from there and found the bottom right corner of the net to put the ‘Cats up 1-0.
The Dukes of JMU did not let the early score get them down though, immediately coming out and striking back in the 27′. James Madison seemed to find the Wildcats still reeling from their first score and slacking on defense to make it a 1-1 match just like that.
Even though each team was able to find luck fairly early in the first 45 minutes of action, the shots were few and far between for the remainder of the half. Following the Wildcats’ first shot and score, they were only able to get one other shot off while James Madison had a total of four shots in the first half with one of those being their only goal.
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Second half comes up Kentucky
Coming out of the locker room each squad had a strong sense of urgency as they were fighting to move on. In just the 50′ James Madison received a penalty kick due to a foul on Kentucky. But Casper Mols, the sophomore star in goal for UK, stepped up and made a huge save to keep it tied up at 1-1.
After Mols’ game-defining save, sophomore and Lexington native Max Miller came up with a massive assist in the 54′. Miller, who was just named to the Sun Belt All-Conference Second Team, found senior Ben Damge for the second Kentucky goal of the night to give the ‘Cats a critical 2-1 lead.
From there, Mols continued to prove why he has been considered one of the best keepers in the country as he saved another shot to tally his second on the night. James Madison was able to get off eight shots in the second 45 but had no luck finding the back of the net.
On the other hand, Kentucky had far fewer shots after only getting off two in the entire second half. Luckily for the ‘Cats, one of two of those shots ended up giving them the early half lead and led to the 2-1 score that allowed them to move onto the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
Next up, No. 5 Kentucky will take on the No. 1 overall-seeded Marshall Thundering Herd on Wednesday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m. EST at Marshall’s home field. In the previous match between the ‘Cats and Marshall on Oct. 22, Kentucky took down the nation’s then-top-ranked Thundering Herd 2-0 in the upset that sparked UK’s late-season revival. Wednesday’s semifinal match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
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