| UCF at #24 SMU Saturday, October 16, 8 p.m. ET WATCH (ESPN+) | LIVE STATS |
ORLANDO, Fla. – The UCF men's soccer team is set to face its second straight ranked opponent, paying No. 24 SMU a visit on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.
The Knights are coming off their most important result this season, beating No. 6 Tulsa to jump into a tie at the top of the American Athletic Conference table with the Golden Hurricane. UCF is the only team so far to hand to Tulsa a loss this season, spoiling their perfect 9-0-0 season.
After a scoreless first half, the goals started to come in bunches. The Knights opened the scoring in the 51st minute as Nick Taylor buried a sliding chance off a beautiful cross from UCF captain Mauricio Villalobos Vega to take the early lead. Five minutes later, Taylor whipped a ball into the box for Ariel Hadar who dove headfirst to tuck the ball home for a 2-0 lead. After Tulsa retaliated a few moments later, the Knights went on top 3-1 thanks to Lucca Dourado's tenth goal of the season via assists from Villalobos and Gino Vivi.
A strong argument can be made that the UCF vs. SMU rivalry is one of the fiercest and fastest growing in all of college soccer. The two teams have been separated by a goal or less in eight of the last ten meetings. The Mustangs hold a slight 8-6-7 edge in the all-time series, but it's been the Knights who have come away victorious as of late. UCF went to Dallas and came away with a 2-0 victory against the then No. 9 Mustangs in their first meeting of the 2020-21 season and then beat them at home 2-1 later in the season. The Black and Gold got the best of SMU one more time in 2020-21, triumphing over the Mustangs in PKs in The American tournament semifinals.
SMU enters the match with a 6-2-2 record. After starting out the season strong, the Mustangs fell to then No. 7 Tulsa with just seven seconds remaining in double overtime. SMU went on to beat Temple 1-0, followed by a 3-2 overtime loss to Memphis. Prior to being beat by the Tigers, SMU was ranked 10th in the United Soccer Coaches Poll.
Gabriel Costa leads the Mustangs in scoring with seven goals and six assists. Just behind him is Papa Ndoye who has tallied five goals and two helpers. Cole Johnson has been the only keeper to suit up for SMU this season, allowing an average of 0.93 goals per game and turning aside .643 percent of shots coming his way through 10 matches.
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