Photo via Regina Rickert
With a 4-8-2 record, the University of Kentucky Men’s Soccer team headed to Huntington, West Virginia to face the Marshall Thundering Herd Wednesday night. After a 4-1 loss to Florida International last week, UK’s NCAA Tournament hopes looked bleak, though Marshall (2-8-6) was one of the less menacing opponents on the Cats’ schedule. Despite a weak first half, the Cats would pull together to get their 5th win of the season.
Kentucky wouldn’t connect right out the gate, but it was obvious that there were openings from the beginning. Just like in previous games, though, the tempo would quickly fall for Kentucky and, with some missed opportunities from Napo and Creel, they would fail to find the back of the net in the first half. Despite aggression early, and UK’s tendency to get a lot of shots off, UK only had 4 shots heading into half, with only one of those 4 being on goal.
Right before half UK would see a return of senior striker Tyler Riggs. As mentioned countless times before, Tyler was a key part to the team’s success last year, and him being successful is crucial for this young team to be successful. Tyler wouldn’t connect in the first half though he would stay on the field to start the 2
nd half. A minute into the half Riggs would get played a beautiful ball from Napo, which he would strike into the corner of the goal to give the Cats their first lead.
The duo of Tyler Riggs and Napo wouldn’t be done there, as Riggs would earn a penalty kick for the Cats in the 83 minute off of a ball played in from Napo. Doliner would take the penalty and he would put it away to give Kentucky a 2-0 lead late in the game. The goal was Doliner’s 5
th of the season. With only 7 minutes left to play, Kentucky would get a few more looks at the goal though the score would stay the same until the final whistle.
FINAL: UK 2- 0 Marshall
In the goal for UK was Callum Irving, the Cats’ main goal keep for the majority of the season. Despite giving a shutout performance against Marshall last year, senior Jack Van Arsdale sat the bench with a 1.50 goals-against average for the current season. Both Van and Callum have exceptional talent, but tonight Irving showed why he has been chosen as the starter so many times during the 2013 campaign, tallying 5 saves on the way to his 5th clean sheet of the season.
Though the team looked even more miserable than usual in the first half, Kentucky pulled together and performed at the highest level we’ve seen them play all season for the latter half of the match. This team is young and, as UK SID Brent Ingram said, they still don’t have the confidence they need. With only 5 wins this far into the season, on paper this win may look meaningless, but the confidence the team gained from this win will be valuable in future matches to come.
Photo via Regina Rickert
With a 4-8-2 record, the University of Kentucky Men’s Soccer team headed to Huntington, West Virginia to face the Marshall Thundering Herd Wednesday night. After a 4-1 loss to Florida International last week, UK’s NCAA Tournament hopes looked bleak, though Marshall (2-8-6) was one of the less menacing opponents on the Cats’ schedule. Despite a weak first half, the Cats would pull together to get their 5th win of the season.
Kentucky wouldn’t connect right out the gate, but it was obvious that there were openings from the beginning. Just like in previous games, though, the tempo would quickly fall for Kentucky and, with some missed opportunities from Napo and Creel, they would fail to find the back of the net in the first half. Despite aggression early, and UK’s tendency to get a lot of shots off, UK only had 4 shots heading into half, with only one of those 4 being on goal.
Right before half UK would see a return of senior striker Tyler Riggs. As mentioned countless times before, Tyler was a key part to the team’s success last year, and him being successful is crucial for this young team to be successful. Tyler wouldn’t connect in the first half though he would stay on the field to start the 2nd half. A minute into the half Riggs would get played a beautiful ball from Napo, which he would strike into the corner of the goal to give the Cats their first lead.
The duo of Tyler Riggs and Napo wouldn’t be done there, as Riggs would earn a penalty kick for the Cats in the 83 minute off of a ball played in from Napo. Doliner would take the penalty and he would put it away to give Kentucky a 2-0 lead late in the game. The goal was Doliner’s 5th of the season. With only 7 minutes left to play, Kentucky would get a few more looks at the goal though the score would stay the same until the final whistle.
FINAL: UK 2- 0 Marshall
In the goal for UK was Callum Irving, the Cats’ main goal keep for the majority of the season. Despite giving a shutout performance against Marshall last year, senior Jack Van Arsdale sat the bench with a 1.50 goals-against average for the current season. Both Van and Callum have exceptional talent, but tonight Irving showed why he has been chosen as the starter so many times during the 2013 campaign, tallying 5 saves on the way to his 5th clean sheet of the season.
Though the team looked even more miserable than usual in the first half, Kentucky pulled together and performed at the highest level we’ve seen them play all season for the latter half of the match. This team is young and, as UK SID Brent Ingram said, they still don’t have the confidence they need. With only 5 wins this far into the season, on paper this win may look meaningless, but the confidence the team gained from this win will be valuable in future matches to come.
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard