="" alt="Knight Head" border="0" class="imported"> Read John Denton's Knights Insider | ="" alt="Twitter Logo" border="0" class="imported">Follow us on Twitter | ="" alt="Facebook Logo" border="0" class="imported">Get social with the Knights on Facebook
By Pat Salvas
UCFAthletics.com
TULSA, Okla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Freshman Christian Eissele (Lake Mary, Fla.) scored his second goal in as many games and sophomore goalkeeper Shawn Doyle (Ft. Myers, Fla.) made a career-high 11 saves to help the UCF men's soccer team earn a 1-1 draw at No. 24 Tulsa Friday night. The game marked the regular season's final game for the Knights (11-3-3, 4-1-3 C-USA), who wrap up their best season in six years with the draw.
"The entire team battled so hard tonight," head coach Bryan Cunningham said. "It is never easy to go down on the road to a good team like Tulsa. The whole team really had to fight to earn the tie and the point here tonight."
UCF will now head to Memphis for the 2010 Conference USA Tournament. The Knights can finish no lower than third in the conference standings after Friday's tie. Their 4-1-3 C-USA record gives them 15 points this season. South Carolina (4-2-1) currently has 13 points and is the only team that can jump ahead of UCF in the standings. A loss or a tie by the Gamecocks against Kentucky on Sunday would secure the Knights the No. 2 seed and a bye into the semifinals of the tournament, but a South Carolina win would drop UCF to No. 3 and a likely first-round rematch with Tulsa (9-5-2, 3-3-2 C-USA).
"This is an incredible accomplishment for this team considering how difficult our schedule was," Cunningham added. "We put ourselves in a great position to make a run in the conference tournament as well as the NCAA Tournament."
Against the Golden Hurricane on Friday, the Knights fell behind, 1-0, midway through the first half on a goal by Tulsa's Kyle Cummings in the 23rd minute.
Eissele tied the game at 1-1 with his third goal of the season and second in as many games with a tally in the 39th minute. Junior Spencer Scott (Palm City, Fla.) set up the goal with his eighth assist of the season. Eissele's goal came on a shot from 20 yards out on the right side.
Neither team was able to find the back of the goal again through the second half and two sessions of extra time.
That lack of scoring was due in large part to the stellar play of Doyle in goal for the Knights with his career-high 11 saves in the game. Of those 11 saves, two came in the first overtime period and three in the second. Doyle also stopped four shots in the second half to send the game to extra time.
"Shawn played exceptionally well in goal for us tonight," Cunningham said. "He gave us every opportunity to win, but unfortunately we couldn't find a way to score the goal to get the victory."
Tulsa outshot UCF, 26-8, in the game, but Doyle and the UCF defense made key stops whenever called upon. Ray Clark stopped three UCF shots in goal for the Golden Hurricane.
The 2010 C-USA Tournament will take place in Memphis on Nov. 10-14. UCF will know where they will be seeded and who they will play on Sunday afternoon following the South Carolina and Kentucky contest from Lexington, Ky.