UCF at Memphis Saturday, September 18, 9 p.m. ET |
ORLANDO, Fla. – The UCF men's soccer team is set to return to action as it opens American Athletic Conference play on the road against Memphis at 9 p.m. ET on Saturday night.
The Black and Gold will begin their 10-match conference slate on the road against Memphis, exactly where the team clinched its 2020-21 regular season title. The Knights secured their third straight regular season conference crown with a 3-0 win against the Tigers before returning home to secure their first conference tournament championship as a member of The American.
UCF got off to a 1-3 start in both the 2020-21 and 2021 seasons. Although they started with the same record, the stories to each are vastly different. The slow start to the 2020-21 season was all against conference foes, putting the Knights in a hole early. Unphased, the Black and Gold took things one match at a time and rallied to win six straight matches on their way to a third straight regular season crown. This season, their first five matches have been against teams outside of The American, generating a clean slate for the start of conference play.
The Knights certainly have momentum heading into their conference schedule after trouncing FGCU by a count of 6-2 on Saturday. Alessandro Campoy scored four goals, the first Knight to do so since 1998, while Lucca Dourado added a pair to move into a tie of second place for the nation's lead in goals scored. Kevin Andrews registered his first points as a Knight, tallying two assists in in the match. Nick Taylor also added a pair of assists on the match, joined by Gino Vivi and Mauricio Villalobos who each collected a helper.
Viv and Dourado continue to pose a threat to opposing goalkeepers, scoring 15 of UCF's last 22 goals dating back to last season. Both Knights are tied for 15th place nationally when it comes to shots on goal per game as they average two apiece per match. Dourado ranks sixth in shot accuracy at a clip of .800.
Memphis is out to slow start in its 2021 campaign, going 1-4-1 through its first six matches after going 2-8-0 last season. The Tigers opened their fall with a loss to Ohio State and a draw against Dayton in the Wolstein Classic. A pair of losses followed the draw as they fell narrowly to No. 23 Lipscomb 2-1 before dropping a 3-0 decision to Saint Louis. Memphis picked up its first win against UAB, scoring a trio of goals before getting beat by Central Arkansas 3-2.
Saturday's contest is the first home match of the Tigers' regular season. They're looking for their first home victory since Oct. 27, 2019 after going 0-5 in Memphis during the 2020-21 season.
Maximillian Galizzi leads the team in scoring, registering three goals while also leading the team in shots on frame with seven. Galizzi has started in all six matches and is fifth on the team in minutes played. Two different Tigers have suited up in net with nearly an even split in playing time, with Colin Welsh registering 290 minutes and Parker Lackland playing in 270. Both have made a dozen saves while Welsh has allowed seven goals to Lackland's six. Lackland owns the team's only win.
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