| Temple vs. UCF Friday, September 24, 6 p.m. ET WATCH (ESPN+) | LIVE STATS | TICKETS |
ORLANDO, Fla. – The UCF men's soccer team returns to action on Friday at 6 p.m. as its set to square off with Temple as the two teams play their second match in conference play.
The Knights scored early and often in their conference opener against Memphis, netting goals in the 11th, 17th, 78th and 85th minutes in a 4-1 victory. Anderson Rosa opened the scoring off a rebound from a Nick Taylor shot before Lucca Dourado added an unassisted tally to the board as UCF jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. After surrendering their lone goal of the match just seconds into the final frame, the Knights found a pair of late goals from Dourado and Beto Ydrach to put the game on ice. Taylor had three assists in the contest, bumping him into the national lead in assists.
Taylor isn't the only one climbing the national leaderboards. Dourado, Alessandro Campoy and Gino Vivi are all over the NCAA DI rankings when it comes to individual stats. Dourado is in the top 10 in shooting and scoring nationally while ranking either first or second in the conference in those categories. He is first in the nation in goals per game (1.40), third in total goals (7), ninth in total points (14) and seventh in points per game (2.50) and shot accuracy (.769). Vivi is ranked in the top 50 nationally in shots on goal per game (24th, 1.83), shots per game (34th, 3.17) and shot accuracy (41st, .579). Campoy's four goal performance still has him in the top 50 in multiple scoring categories. He had seven shot attempts in the Memphis match, four of them landing on frame. Three of every five shots he takes is on goal, putting him 25th in the country in shot accuracy. He is tied with Dourado for 11th nationally in shots on goal per game.
After a 1-3 start, the Knights have won their last two matches, outscoring opponents 10-3 over that span. Saturday's victory over Memphis was the first time in the last four matches that the Black and Gold had held their opponent under two goals. UCF is back to their old ways when it comes to being nationally ranking in scoring offense as they are currently tied for fourth in the nation, averaging 2.83 goals per match. The Knights were consistently ranked in the top ten in nearly every scoring category in 2018 and 2019 before falling to 69th in goals per match in 2020-21 with a clip of 1.50.
Tyler Lavigne got the nod in net for the conference opener and made three first half. The only goal that found the back of the net was a ball that trickled from one side of the goal mouth to the other and eventually buried in the 46th minute. At the end of the contest, Lavigne had four saves in his first full match for the Knights.
Dourado, Rosa and Lavigne swept the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honors for the Black and Gold for their efforts against Memphis.
Temple enters the match coming off a 4-1 loss to No. 18 SMU in its conference opener and bring a 1-2-2 record with them to Orlando. The Owls began their season with two 0-0 draws, tying No. 10 Seton Hall in New Jersey before doing the same on the road to Rutgers. Temple earned their first victory of the season against Manhattan before falling to Villanova 2-1 in double overtime. Nigel Griffith leads the Owls in scoring, tallying two goals and an assist to this point. The American Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year Eoin Gawronski has started and played in four of Temple's five matches to this point, earning 17 saves and boasting a 0.67 goal allowed average to this point. However, it was Liam Cummings who was between the pipes in the team's conference opener as he surrendered four goals and made three saves against SMU.
The Knights are 6-2-2 all-time against Temple, winning the last four meetings decisively, outscoring the Owls 12-0 over that time. UCF has outscored Temple 19-6 in the 10 total meetings.
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