Aug. 18, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - In its first test of the preseason, the UCF men's soccer team played a scoreless first 67 minutes before dropping a 2-0 decision to St. Leo in an exhibition match on Saturday night at the UCF Soccer Complex.
Going into the second half with the scored tied at 0-0, the Knights got a pair of chances in the 60th minute before Lions' senior Mikael Angesjo found the back of the net seven minutes later. The play started when junior Eusebio Montoya sent the ball toward the net, but the shot was cleared away by UCF sophomore Akin Akinrinade (Merrillville, Ind./Merrillville HS). Angesjo collected the rebound for the goal.
Angejo got his second tally in the 78th minute. UCF's best second-half scoring chance came off the boot of freshman Dustin McCarty (Maitland, Fla./Winter Park HS), who sent a shot into the chest of SLU freshman goalkeeper Joey Goldolfo with less than a minute remaining on the clock.
The match allowed many on the Knights' roster to earn experience in a real game situation.
"We followed the game script just as we planned to do," said first-year head coach Bryan Cunningham. "We gave our first team the first 40 to 60 minutes then brought on our second team to finish out the game."
All three freshman goalkeepers found time in net. Sean Johnson (Lilburn, Ga./Brookwood HS) started and made two saves. Adam Martin also made a pair of saves, while Matt Urbano faced few threatening shots.
Although nearly all of UCF's players saw game action, there were goals that the Knights felt went unaccomplished.
"Before game, we had four main objectives. Those were to make sure we remained patient, disciplined, competed and controlled the tempo," said Cunningham. "When we went back to the locker room after the game, we collectively decided that we failed in all four of those categories. It's not good enough that our first team comes away with a clean sheet. We expect that our second team goes out there and doesn't give up those two goals. Nevertheless, we pick up from here and we move forward."
The Knights host Jacksonville in their final exhibition match on Friday, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m. at the UCF Soccer Complex. They open the regular season at USF on Friday, Aug. 31 at 7:30 p.m.
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