ORLANDO – The UCF men’s soccer team is set for its 2024 Sun Belt Conference Men’s Soccer Championship opener Sunday evening, when it will square off against the James Madison Dukes with a trip to the tournament semifinals on the line.
The Knights’ final regular season game ended with a 2-1 home victory over the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Nov. 5. In the 17th minute, Joey Mueller headed the game's first goal with an assist from Anderson Rosa. Coastal Carolina evened the score in the 29th minute. With one last push from the Knights, in the 89th minute, Lucca Dourado scored the game-winning goal to bring the regular season to a close.
Rosa’s action against Coastal Carolina was his 75th game, marking a program record for all-time games played. Since his collegiate debut against Tulsa Feb. 6, 2021, the defender has appeared in each of UCF’s 75 matches, breaking a tie with Chris Beaulac (2000-2003), Andrew Quintana (2009-2012) and Mauricio Villalobos (2018-2022).
UCF tied for third with Kentucky and South Carolina in the conference with 15 points, trailing West Virginia’s 19 (10-1-6, 5-0-4 SBC) and Marshall’s 17 (9-1-6, 4-0-5 SBC). The Black and Gold earned the tiebreaker over the Wildcats and Gamecocks by virtue of UCF’s 2-1 win over Kentucky Oct. 23 and 4-0 over South Carolina Nov. 1.
Juanvi Muñoz made three saves in the second half, bringing his regular-season totals to two shutouts, 18 saves and a 1.00 goals-against average, good for the third-lowest mark in the Sun Belt.
Rosa’s assist to Mueller brings him a season-high six assists. Rosa also had two other season high totals with 30 shot attempts and 10 shots on goal. Mueller, Sora Funakoshi, Jonas Fritschi, Mouhamed Pouye, Carlos Rojas and Drew Hansen scored their first collegiate goal this season, four of which Rosa assisted.
To round out the regular season, Dourado is the team’s leading goal-scorer for the fourth season in a row, tallying six goals this season including four in his last two matches. Clarence Awoudor finishes the regular season tied for first for the most assists (7) in the Sun Belt Conference, he also leads the conference in assists per game (0.43).
Dourado’s Tuesday goal marks the 43rd of his career and makes him three away from tying Cal Jennings’ (2016-19) total of 46 for the fourth most goals in program history. Dourado currently ranks sixth for all-time points with 92 making him eight away from being the sixth player in program history to have 100 or more points.
Dourado’s game-winner against Coastal Carolina was a pass from Awoudor and as the goalkeeper was charging forward Dourado floated it right over his head into the back left corner of the net. This goal marked Dourado’s third game-winner of the season and 15th game-winning goal of his career.
Dourado’s first game-winner was during the postseason on April 17, 2021, against then-No. 2 Tulsa. He also notched the game-winner in the next game against James Madison on May 2, 2021.
In the following fall season in 2021, Dourado scored six game-winning goals. Four of which were in consecutive games. He had another instance of back-to-back game-winners against Georgia Southern on Oct. 7, 2023, and against Old Dominion on Oct. 14, 2023.
The UCF men’s soccer team (7-5-3, 5-4 SBC) rounded out the regular season with 26 goals, 25 assists and 83 shots on goal. James Madison (7-4-6, 3-3-3 SBC) ended the season with 24 goals, 20 assists and 97 shots on goal.
The last time the Black and Gold played against James Madison in the postseason was May 2, 2021, when they topped the then-No. 17 Dukes 2-1 on the road in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, pushed to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Within the first four minutes, Gino Vivi scored the first goal with an assist from Dourado. James Madison leveled the score in the 51st minute. Dourado responded quickly with the game-winning goal four minutes later.
James Madison is coming off a 1-0 loss against Old Dominion. The Dukes’ goalie Sebastian Conlon had five saves tying his last season's total of 53 saves. Conlon has a season-high seven shutouts on the season.
The third-seeded Knights now prepare for their first-round Sun Belt Conference Championship matchup against the sixth-seeded James Madison Dukes in Huntington, West Virginia. The match, scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 10, is set for a 7 p.m. kickoff and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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