ORLANDO – The No. 1 UCF men’s soccer team returns to Orlando for its regular-season finale Tuesday evening, with a title and the top seed on the line.
After the squad put the finishing touches on its sixth consecutive victory in its regular-season road finale at Georgia State Friday, the top-ranked Knights (10-1-2, 6-1-1 SBC) enter their Halloween night matchup against James Madison with the chance to clinch the Sun Belt regular-season championship and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament on Senior Knight, when the team will honor seniors Raphael Crivello, AJ Seals, Beto Ydrach, Zane Bubb, Robbie Soronellas and student manager Matthew Lerner.
With the Knights’ latest victory, coupled with No. 2 West Virginia’s 1-0 loss at Kentucky Friday, UCF clinched a top two seed in next week’s tournament, awarding the Knights hosting rights for at least the Nov. 5 quarterfinal and Nov. 8 semifinal rounds. The No. 1 seed would clinch hosting honors for the Nov. 12 Sun Belt Tournament Championship Game as well, should UCF advance that far.
The Knights control their own destiny entering their regular-season finale, clinging to a one-point lead over second-place No. 6 Marshall in the Sun Belt table, 19 points to 18. A UCF win Tuesday evening would crown the Knights champions of the Sun Belt and ensure that the road to the tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament runs through Orlando.
The team’s latest victory, which locked up the program’s first double-digit win campaign since the Knights’ 15-3-2 season in the fall of 2019, was built upon its third consecutive contest with three or more goals scored and a strong showing by redshirt-freshman goalkeeper Luciano Natoli in his first collegiate start.
For the second time in as many matches, the Knights jumped out to a 3-0 lead and later displayed its fortitude in staving off a late rally by its opposition in earning a 3-2 victory. Midfielder AJ Seals broke the ice in the 23rd minute with the first goal of his collegiate career before Emmanuel Bam and Zane Bubb both added second-half tallies in the 64th and 65th minutes, respectively. Bubb’s goal, his second of the season, also represented the first game-winning goal of his collegiate career.
The Knights have now scored 29 goals through their 13 matches thus far, already outpacing their 2022 total of 23, and their 2.23 goals per game entering Tuesday’s action is the third-best mark in the Sun Belt and ranks 15th in the nation. The team’s 6.15 points per game is also a top-three mark in the conference, and slots in at 24th nationally.
Between the goalposts on the other end, Natoli recorded his first four collegiate saves in place of sophomore starter Juanvi Muñoz, who was disqualified from Friday’s match as a result of the red card he was shown with just over 15 minutes to play in the Knights’ previous match at South Carolina.
Defensively, UCF enters its regular-season finale a top-three team in the Sun Belt as well, pulling in at third in the conference in save percentage (.750) and team goals-against average (1.000).
The winning effort extended what was already the longest active win streak in the Sun Belt to six straight matches, and in James Madison, UCF will face the owner of the second-longest streak in the conference. The Dukes have won each of their last three matches against Old Dominion, Georgia State and Georgia Southern, and bring a 7-3-5 overall record to Orlando, including a 3-2-3 mark in conference play.
The Halloween night contest will represent just the third meeting between UCF and James Madison, with the all-time series knotted up at 1-1-0. The Knights emerged victorious in the teams’ previous matchup, a 2-1 decision over the then-No. 17 Dukes in the NCAA Tournament May 2, 2021, after UCF received an automatic bid as the victor of the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Dukes’ calling card has been their offensive production through 15 matches, bringing to Orlando a scoring offense that ranks second in the Sun Belt and 13th in the country with 2.27 goals per game. The team has also recorded, on average, the most shots on goal per game of any Sun Belt program this fall, recording 7.27 attempts on target that also ranks fifth-most in the nation.
The team boasts four double-digit point scorers, led by redshirt-junior forward Evan Southern’s six goals and five assists, good for a team-best 17 points. The Knights will also be wary of redshirt-senior midfielder/forward Rodrigo Robles (5-6–16), graduate student midfielder Clay Obara (6-2–14) and sophomore midfielder Kevin Larsson (5-3–13).
In goal, sophomore netminder Sebastian Conlon has handled all but 34:56 of the Dukes’ 1,350 total minutes, allowing 18 goals on 48 total shots on target against him and producing a 1.232 goals-against average that ranks fifth-best in the Sun Belt. He has also authored a pair of clean sheets to this point, blanking UCLA in James Madison’s second match of the year with three saves, and shutting out Kentucky Oct. 13, also making a trio of saves.
Kickoff for the Knights’ regular-season finale is slated for 7 p.m. from the UCF Soccer Complex, and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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