ORLANDO – The UCF men’s soccer team is set to conclude its 2024 regular season with its fifth road matchup of the fall, traveling to Conway, South Carolina for a Tuesday tilt with the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.
On the heels of an emotional pregame ceremony that honored six UCF seniors, Anderson Rosa, Ousmane Ba, Emmanuel Bam, Jonas Fritschi, Lucca Dourado and student manager Carson Boyko, Dourado produced one of the best games of his five-year career, recording his first career hat trick that led the Black and Gold to their 4-0 victory over South Carolina Friday evening.
In addition to this being the first hat trick in his career, the game lifted the forward to 42 career goals. This marked him as the fifth in program history to score at least 40 goals, and with 42 in his career he now ranks fifth on the UCF all-time career goals scored list behind Heikki Ritvanen (88, 1996-99), Randy DeShield (56, 1976-79), Ari Nurmi (47, 1996-99) and Cal Jennings (46, 2016-19).
This marks UCF’s 41st hat trick in program history, the first achieved by Randy DeShield against St. Leo in 1976, and the most recent in 2021 by Alessandro Campoy against FGCU.
Dourado joined an exclusive club within the Sun Belt with his accomplishment as well, joining Kentucky’s Logan Dorsey, Georgia Southern’s Ryan Holmes and West Virginia’s Sergio Ors Navarro as the fourth player in the league to score three goals in a single game this season.
Rosa accounted for the remaining score in UCF’s four-goal victory. The Knights bring 12 points into their Tuesday contest at Coastal Carolina and sit in a four-way tie for third place in the Sun Belt table with James Madison, South Carolina and Kentucky, trailing only No. 7 West Virginia (18 points) and No. 6 Marshall (16 points) following Friday’s action.
Junior goalkeeper Juanvi Muñoz, played spotless defense behind his team on the other end, making a pair of saves and doing his part to stifle Gamecock chances throughout the evening.
Muñoz clinched his second clean sheet of the season and seventh of his career, ensuring the goalkeeper multiple shutouts in each of his first three collegiate seasons, and the Knights as a whole locked down their third shutout of the fall.
In blanking the Gamecocks, UCF silenced a South Carolina offense that entered the evening leading the Sun Belt in goals per game (2.36, 7th NCAA), points per game (6.71, 12th NCAA), total goals (33, 14th NCAA), total points (94, 19th NCAA) and shots on goal per game (6.43, 20th NCAA).
In their last matchup against Coastal Carolina, the Black and Gold prevailed 5-0 against the Chanticleers.
The contest marked the first five-goal match for the Knights (8-1-2, 4-1-1 SBC) since Nov. 10, 2021, when the Knights toppled then-No. 3 Memphis by a 6-0 score in the American Athletic Conference Tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
UCF netted four goals in a single half for the first time since the aforementioned victory over Memphis, when the team did the same in the first half, and the Knights scored four in the second half of a match for the first time since the team’s 4-2 win at Stetson Sept. 15, 2018.
The Knights saw five different players score at least one goal in a single match for the first time since their 2021 Memphis win, as well, while starting netminder Juanvi Muñoz made one save on three shot attempts in clinching his first combined shutout of the fall 2023 season.
UCF (6-5-3) meets Coastal Carolina (3-9-3) following the Chanticleers 0-0 draw against then-No.7 West Virginia Oct. 31st
Coastal Carolina has gone undefeated against the top three teams in the Sun Belt Conference this season with a draw against James Madison Oct 12, Marshall Oct 18, and West Virginia Oct 31.
Kickoff for the match is set for 7 p.m. from CCU Soccer Stadium and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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