ORLANDO – With the squad’s 2025 Sun Belt Conference opener complete, the UCF men’s soccer team will return to Orlando for its league home-opener against the No. 10 West Virginia Mountaineers Sunday evening at the UCF Soccer Complex.
The Knights (2-4-1, 0-1-0 Sun Belt) most recently fell in a tightly contested road tilt with then-No. 22 Kentucky Sept. 19, battling through a scoreless first half before the two teams combined for five second-half goals in the Wildcats’ 3-2 win in Lexington.
Lilian Ricol netted his third score of the season in the 59th minute, bringing UCF back even with Kentucky after the home 11 broke the ice just minutes earlier. In the 85th minute of play, senior forward Claudel N’goubou provided a response to two more Wildcat tallies with his second Knights goal.
Ricol’s score broke a tie with teammates Clarence Awoudor and Jem Hewlett for the team lead in goals, while Awoudor retained his place atop the Knights’ leaderboard in assists and points with his fifth helper of the season on Ricol’s goal.
Awoudor’s latest assist, one that leaves him just two shy of matching his previous season best of seven set last fall, also extended his active points streak to five consecutive matches, the longest such streak of his career.
The Saint-Lo, France, native’s five-match point streak also represents the Knights’ longest streak since Lucca Dourado scored 10 of his 11 goals in 2022 across a stretch of seven consecutive matches spanning Sept. 5–Oct. 9. Overall, Awoudor enters play Sunday ranking among conference leaders in total assists (5, 2nd SBC, 12th NCAA), assists per game (0.71, 3rd SBC, 11th NCAA), points per game (1.29, T-6th SBC), and total points (9, T-6th SBC).
Senior goalkeeper Juanvi Muñoz recorded four saves throughout the match as well, marking the Valencia, Spain, native’s second contest this season with at least four saves to push his season total to 19, good for a share of fifth most in the Sun Belt with the Mountaineers’ Marc Bonnaire.
Muñoz has also made the fourth most saves per game in the league, with 2.71, and enters Sunday’s action against West Virginia the owner of the ninth lowest career goals-against average in program history (1.30).
UCF’s Sunday tilt, its eighth of the year and the season’s official halfway point, comes against a Mountaineers squad against which it has limited history. The Black and Gold hold a narrow 2-1-2 lead in the all-time series against West Virginia, though the Mountaineers own a 1-0-1 edge over the Knights in the programs’ previous two matchups as Sun Belt Conference mates in 2023 and 2024.
The teams’ Sept. 15, 2023, meeting in Orlando represented the first top five matchup in UCF’s program history, when the Black and Gold owned a No. 5 national ranking and West Virginia boasted a No. 4 spot (United Soccer Coaches) at the time of the match, which resulted in a 2-2 draw.
The defending 2024 Sun Belt regular-season and tournament champion, West Virginia last season advanced as far as the second round of the NCAA Tournament, besting North Florida, 2-1, before falling on the road to the No. 11 seed Virginia Cavaliers.
The Mountaineers this fall are off to 5-1-2 start overall and emerged victorious in their Sun Belt Conference opener at home against James Madison, 2-1, Sept. 19, on the strength of tallies by leading scorer Pablo Pozos and Marcus Caldeira.
West Virginia has also gone unbeaten in three of its first four matchups against ranked opponents this season, highlighted by a prolific 6-4 win over then-No. 22 George Mason Sept. 7. The squad played to draws with then-No. 16 Akron (0-0) Aug. 29 and then-No. 9 High Point (2-2) Sept. 23 as well.
Kickoff for the match is set for 7 p.m. from the UCF Soccer Complex and will be streamed live on ESPN+.
TICKETS
UCF men’s soccer season and single-game tickets are on sale now. Please visit ucfknights.com/tickets for more information or call the ticket office at (407) 823-1000.
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