Kentucky Men's Soccer Remains Winless in Conference; Ties 4th Match in a Row

Kentucky just cannot come up with a win.

The Wildcats’ Men’s Soccer team (3-6-4) faced off against the Georgia State Panthers (5-4-5) in a midweek Sun Belt Conference battle at The Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington on Wednesday night. Kentucky started out slow, but a late-game momentum streak helped bring them back, resulting in another draw for the ‘Cats — their fourth in a row. It was just Kentucky’s third point in conference play.

Georgia State came out looking more energetic than UK. By the 10th minute, the Panthers had already come up with two corner attempts, but both teams were off to a slow start when it came to scoring.

Kentucky began to pick it up in the middle of the first half and was ultimately able to get off seven shot attempts by the end of the opening 45 minutes. Although the ‘Cats had more shot attempts compared to the Panthers, Georgia State still got on the board first in the 35’. With just their second shot attempt, the Panthers were able to take a 1-0 lead late in the first half.

Coming out of the locker room, UK still found themselves down 1-0. The ‘Cats would need to pick up play in the box if they wanted to make a run for a victory, but Georgia State came out stronger once again and took a 2-0 lead in the 55’.

The Panthers’ second score seemed to light an immediate fire under the ‘Cats though, as fifth-year Mason Visconti sent a shot into the bottom of the goal one minute later to give UK their first score of the game and make it a 2-1 match in the 56’.

MASON. VISCONTI.#WeAreUK | #GBED pic.twitter.com/gtAk5CYGMg

— Kentucky Men’s Soccer (@UKMensSoccer) October 19, 2023

Kentucky gains needed momentum

Both squads were going back and forth late into the second half, but no scores were made. Kentucky would make headway toward their box, but the Panthers were not allowing the ‘Cats to get near the goal.

Late into the 80′, the Wildcats were on the cusp of tying things up but could not quite get where they needed to. Finally, in the 85′ Kentucky freshman Isaiah Chisolm found senior Aboubacar Camara in the box for the equalizer goal to tie it up at 2-2.

TIED. UP.#WeAreUK | #GBED pic.twitter.com/g6F4HCCLOD

— Kentucky Men’s Soccer (@UKMensSoccer) October 19, 2023

From there, each team was trying to find that game-winning goal, but neither could find the back of the net and the result was a 2-2 draw. Although the Panthers did not get the victory, the tie gave them a point against the ‘Cats for the first time ever. Coming into the match, Kentucky had won the previous two outings against Georgia State.

“We’ll be disappointed not to have three points tonight,” Associate head coach Ryan Zinkhan said postgame. “When you start slow in the first half and start slow in the second half against a good team like Georgia State, they can punish you. We didn’t do ourselves any favors to go down 2-nil but giving credit to our guys, the resiliency to come back and get two goals in the second half to tie it up. There’s a lot of positives to say about that.”

The latest draw for Kentucky makes it their fourth straight draw and adds to their winless streak of eight straight matches. UK’s last win came on Sept. 8 in a 3-2 victory over Lipscomb. Up next for the ‘Cats is No. 1 ranked Marshall on the road on Sunday, October 22 at 4:30 p.m. EST in Huntington, WV.