ORLANDO, Fla. – The UCF men's soccer team dropped its Sunday contest against Memphis by a score of 3-0, snapping the Knights' four match win streak and suffering their first American Athletic Conference defeat of 2021.
"It was really disappointing that we approached this game in the way that we did and obviously the result is incredibly disappointing," said head coach Scott Calabrese. "I thought we started fairly well, we moved the ball quickly and identified what we needed to do. We had two plans since they had played two different formations against us in the past. Then, as the half went on, we made the game more complicated than we needed it to be. That brought Memphis into the game. I thought we probably created enough chances where the match was 1-0 and 2-0 where we could have and probably should have converted. Right up to the end, I felt we had two legitimate chances where we could've scored."
The first half hour of the match saw no scoring but saw UCF lead 3-1 in shot attempts. Despite the edge, it was Memphis who struck first in the 36th minute as Eric Primo whipped a ball in off a corner kick, where it was headed up by Maximillian Galizzi and then immediately headed in by Artur De Luca.
The Knights had a 6-2 shot advantage at the break and were tied in corner kicks at three a side.
Memphis kept the pressure on and added a goal in the 59th minute as De Luca earned his second goal of the evening with an assist from Galizzi, also his second time on the scoresheet on the night.
The Black and Gold had possession of the ball for a solid chunk of time following the second Tigers goal but couldn't bury their chances. UCF held a 10-4 shot attempt advantage in the second half and a 4-1 edge in corner kicks.
Memphis put another goal on the scoreboard before it hit triple zeros. Galizzi earned his third assist of the evening along with a helper from Toby McCallum as they slipped a ball from the half line past a sliding Knight to Gabriel Christensen who raced in and chipped one over the UCF goalkeeper to put the game away.
Colin Welsh had seven saves for the Tigers when the final horn sounded, none of UCF's 16 shot attempts or seven shots on frame could find the back of the net.
The loss snaps a five-match winning streak against Memphis, meaning the Black and Gold are now 14-8-4 all-time against the Tigers. UCF had won nine consecutive regular season conference matchups prior to this contest and 11 straight against American foes when including the conference's championship tournament.
Additionally, this was the first time that the Knights have lost a match in the month of October under Coach Calabrese. UCF was 15-0-3 in the month of October, going exactly 5-0-1 in each season. The loss is just the seventh time in 42 matches that the Knights have fallen at home under Calabrese, posting a record of 29-7-6 at the UCF Soccer Complex.
UP NEXT
The Knights will host No. 7 Tulsa on Sunday at 6 p.m. as part of a soccer double header. The UCF women's soccer team will host Tulsa at 1 p.m. before the men take the pitch later that afternoon.
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