| #8 UCF vs. South Florida October 26, 2019, 7 P.M. Watch | Listen | Live Stats |
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The No. 8 UCF men's soccer team is set for their War On I-4 matchup with the South Florida Bulls as they'll travel to Tampa to play their cross-state rival on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Knights extended their unbeaten streak to 11 matches after their 2-1 overtime win against UConn. UCF has gone to overtime with their opponents in their last four matches, coming out of those matches with a record of 3-0-1. Gino Vivi scored his second consecutive golden goal to send the Knights home happy.
The Black and Gold currently sit in first place in the American Athletic Conference standings with a record of 3-0-1 and 10 points. A win would keep UCF in first place with just two conference matches to go as the Knights hunt a repeat of their regular season conference crown from last season.
THE WAR
This is the fourth season of the War On I-4 Series between UCF and USF. The series takes each sport into account, awarding points for each sport's victory. The Knights have won the first three years of the official all-sports series, dominating last year by a score of 70-14. The UCF men's soccer team contributed six points to that tally with a 2-1 victory on the road.
A win this weekend would add six points to the 2019-20 total and bring the score to 9-0. UCF volleyball topped USF 3-1 in the first rivalry match of the year to give the Knights a 3-0 lead in the War on I-4.
THE OPPONENT
The Bulls come into the match with a record of 8-4-1, earning a 2-2 draw in their last match on Tuesday to No. 11 FIU. The match was the first time that the Bulls had needed to go to overtime this season. USF is 1-2-1 over their last four matches, falling to conference opponents Temple and SMU. They are currently pegged at the No. 5 spot in the conference standings with a record of 2-2-0 and six points.
Emilio Ycaza leads the way in goals scored with four for the Bulls. Avionne Flanagan has tallied a team high nine points for USF, scoring a goal and registering seven assists. Harrison Devenish-Meares has been the primary goalkeeper for the Bulls, posting a goals allowed average of 1.08 and saving .725 percent of shots that come his way.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Despite not scoring in the first 15 minutes of the match against UConn, UCF has scored within that time frame in eight of their last ten matches. The Black and Gold are 7-0-1 in games where they score in the first 15 minutes. The Knights have also scored in the first seven minutes in five of their last seven matches.
Louis Perez's point streak is still active at six after not playing in the Knights' last match. The junior has four goals and eight assists and his working his way up the single season assists leaderboard at UCF. He currently sits in a tie of fifth place with six other players and needs just one assist to jump into a tie of fourth place with Nic Robinson and Rami Vehmas.
Cal Jennings is looking to score his 40th goal in his career on Saturday. Should he score, it would put him in sole possession of fourth place on UCF's career goals scored list.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Knights continue to take the nation by storm in the amount of goals they score. They sit ninth in the country with a goals per game mark of 2.42. The Bulls have only averaged 1.50 goals per game to this point while surrendering 1.25. The Knights rank seventh in the nation in shot attempts per match with a mark of 16.83 while USF takes an average of 13.5. The Black and Gold rank second in the nation in corner kicks per match with 7.5 with USF collecting 4.9 on average.
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