| UCF at #15 Wake Forest Thurs., Aug. 25, 8:00 p.m. WATCH (ACC Network) | LIVE STATS |
ORLANDO – The UCF men's soccer team is set to begin its 2022 regular season campaign against one of the nation's top programs as they visit No. 15 Wake Forest on Thursday for an 8 p.m. kick on ACC Network.
The Knights are coming off a 9-8 season in which they missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three campaigns. This season's roster looks to turn that around as 13 members of last year's team return along with 14 newcomers poised to make an immediate impact. Highlighting that newcomer group are three ACC transfers, two on defense, an additional transfer from Oregon State and 10 total freshmen.
Despite going 9-8 last season, UCF was just a goal away from making the NCAA Tournament as an automatic bid in the American Athletic Conference Championship final. The score was level at 1-1 with 10 minutes to go in the championship match against No. 2 Tulsa, who ended up scoring an 82nd minute goal to dash UCF's hopes of a tournament title.
The Black and Gold had one of the most potent offenses in the country last season, scoring 2.53 goals per game, putting them fifth in the country in that category. Despite the high scoring offense, the defense allowed an average of 1.935 goals per game, which was 175th in the country.
A high scoring offense is nothing new to the Knights under head coach Scott Calabrese, as they have been ranked in the top 50 in goals per game in four of his five seasons at the helm. Three of those campaigns had the team finishing in the top 11, finishing fifth last year as well as in 2018 with 2.32 goals per game and 11th in 2019 with a 2.25 clip.
The Knights are returning 26 of 43 goals scored last year, with 20 of those coming from two sets of feet in Lucca Dourado and Gino Vivi. Both landed on the United Soccer Coaches Players to Watch Lists that were released this preseason, and there is plenty of reason to keep an eye on both. Dourado led the Knights in scoring last year with 13 goals and a pair of assists, resulting in 28 points. Just behind Dourado was Vivi, who netted seven goals and six assists, giving him 20 points on the campaign, a new career high for the rising senior. Together, Dourado and Vivi have scored 28 of UCF's last 51 goals, dating back to the 2020-21 season.
UCF will match up with Wake Forest for the fourth time in program history, with the Demon Deacons taking all previous meetings. The Knights have only ever played Wake Forest on the road, falling in the 2004 NCAA Tournament by a score of 5-0, along with the same result in the 2006 regular season. The Black and Gold met Wake Forest for the first time in the Calabrese era in 2019, a much closer 2-1 decision that went in favor of the then-No. 6 ranked Demon Deacons.
Wake Forest had yet another successful campaign in 2021 reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the seventh straight season. Unseeded in the tournament, the Demon Deacons used a second half goal to beat Mercer 2-1 in the first round before going to Miami to upset the No. 13 national seeded FIU Panthers with a 3-2 result. Wake Forest's run came to an end at the hands of No. 4 Notre Dame in the Sweet 16, a 2-0 loss to a team that eventually went on to the final four, falling to eventual national champion Clemson.
Omar Hernandez will be a player to look out for on Wake Forest's side, as he was named to the 2022 ACC Preseason Watch List after scoring five goals and tallying three assists in 2021. The Demon Deacons return Jake Swallen, the team's second leading scorer in 2021 with five goals and six assists. Sophomore Trace Alphin spent 17 games between the posts last season, recording a 1.35 goals allowed average and making 42 saves, resulting in a .656 save percentage.
UCF will be looking for its first opening night win since 2018. They have lost the previous three opening night matches, falling to then-No. 6 Wake Forest 2-1 in 2019, 1-0 to Tulsa in 2020-21 and 4-0 to FIU in 2021. The Knights will be looking to change their luck this time around with a statement victory at the place where their opening night skid first started. The last time the Knights faced the Demon Deacons, they eventually went onto the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, the Black and Gold's first ever appearance at that stage.
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