Kentucky Men's Soccer Records Third Straight Draw

The ties just keep coming for the ‘Cats.

Kentucky Men’s Soccer (3-6-3) faced off against James Madison University (4-3-5) on Friday night at The Bell in Lexington. Following a 1-1 draw against Coastal Carolina last week, the Wildcats have been seeking out their first win following a six-match loss/draw streak. Unfortunately, UK could not come up with a victory against the Dukes of JMU as it was another tie result on Friday.

The good news? Kentucky at least picked up a point in Sun Belt Conference action, just the second of the season. It was also the team’s first defensive shutout since August. UK still leads the all-time series against James Madison 2-0-1.

“We got a point against a really good JMU team tonight,” Associate head coach Ryan Zinkhan said postgame. “We kept a clean sheet. I thought we defended really well. There are opportunities I think we can be a little bit better in the final third, but we’ll take a look at that this week and work on that. Everything that we want is right in front of us, we just have to keep taking it game by game, and we’ve got another great test against Georgia State on Wednesday.”

‘Cats come out flat

Starting out neither team could seem to get a jump on the other. It was a back-and-forth possession match between the two teams, but hardly any shots were coming close to the goal.

In the first half, Kentucky tallied four shots over the whole 45 minutes, while the Dukes only came away with three first 45 shots. Within the first three minutes of the match, the Wildcats were able to get one of the four shots off, but it had no luck finding the back of the net.

Throughout the season thus far, the ‘Cats have struggled to capitalize on the opportunities that they have had when it comes to scoring. This pattern continues to shine through as each game goes on, as they get the early scoring chances but are not able to go up on their opponents.

By the end of the first 45, it remained a nil-nil game. Each team had chances to get up on the other, however, neither of them could successfully get the ball to the back of the net.

Halftime.#WeAreUK | #GBED pic.twitter.com/AzpbWuRPW6

— Kentucky Men’s Soccer (@UKMensSoccer) October 14, 2023

Offensive struggles continue

Coming out of the locker room, both teams seemed a bit more energetic but still lacked success when it came to scoring. James Madison came out looking more aggressive on the offensive end as they got their first shot attempt off less than 10 minutes into the second half.

In the 56′ the ‘Cats started to pick up speed after a shot attempt came from freshman Isaiah Chisolm. Although Chisolm’s shot had no luck, another UK shot attempt was taken less than two minutes later. It felt like luck had run dry for both teams late into the second half.

By the 80′, the score remained 0-0 and the clock was ticking on either team’s chances of getting a victory. As the seconds ticked off the clock, both squads ran around giving their last efforts to find a goal but it never came, resulting in another draw for Kentucky.

Altogether, Kentucky tallied 10 shots and held possession for most of the night, but even with just five total shots from James Madison, the ‘Cats just couldn’t get it done. The pattern continues for UK as they have just not been able to come up with a strong enough offensive performance to come away with a win. Their last victory came on Sept. 8 in a 3-2 win over Lipscomb.

Kentucky’s next chance for a win will come on Wednesday, October 18 at The Bell in Lexington as Georgia State will come into town to face off against the Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. EST.