TULSA, Okla. – The UCF men's soccer team lost its match against Tulsa on the road Saturday night by a count of 3-1 on a rainy evening.
The action got going early as Tulsa's Alex Meinhard scored in the 15th minute off an assist from Til Zinnhardt. Meinhard, who scored the lone goal in UCF's last meeting with the Golden Hurricane, threw a shoulder into the Knight defender and made his way toward the net, striking one into the bottom left corner of the net.
The Golden Hurricane struck again fifteen minutes later as Meinhard added another one in the 30th minute. The Tulsa striker cut to the left and let a shot go that deflected off a Knight on the way through to the net.
Shot attempts were even at the halfway mark at five a piece. The Knights led 9-1 in corner kicks as they had a solid number of chances after the first 45 minutes.
UCF answered in a hurry out of the second half as Mauricio Villalobos Vega cut the deficit in half with a left-footed goal in the box in the 48th minute. Caleb Franke got things started out top roughly 25 yards out as he fed it to Yoni Sorokin, who was credited with the assist, at the top of the 18. Sorokin was able to feed the UCF captain who was cutting into toward the net. Villalobos made a nice cut to his left to evade the last Tulsa defender standing in his way and finished the chance in the lower left-hand corner.
The Knights continued to apply pressure, firing off four of the next six shot attempts. However, it was Tulsa who added the next goal as Ben Barkely scored off an assist from Meinhard in the 65th minute. Barkely weaved his way across the box and tucked the ball just inside the right post.
UCF continued to pepper shots Tulsa's way but couldn't find the back of the net. At the end of the second stanza, the Black and Gold had outshot the Golden Hurricane 11-4 in the period and 16-9 in the match. The Knights came into the match leading in shot attempts per match, with a mark of 12.67. UCF also led the conference in corner kicks with a 7.67 clip, a category in which they had an 11-1 edge in Saturday night.
Matt Douglass got the chance to make his first career start and made a trio of saves in the process.
UP NEXT
The Knights will face Memphis for the first time this season as UCF will play host to the Tigers on Mar. 6 at 6 p.m.
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