STATESBORO, Ga. – The UCF men’s soccer team continued its recent run of dominance in its most recent action Tuesday evening, putting a bow on the 2026 regular season with a 2-1 victory on the road over the Georgia Southern Eagles at Bo Pitts Field.
The win represented the Knights’ ninth of the year overall and fifth of the Sun Belt Conference slate, clinching the No. 3 seed in the Sun Belt Conference tournament with 16 points in the league table. UCF’s end-of-season point total trailed only the co-Sun Belt Regular Season Champion Marshall Thundering Herd and West Virginia Mountaineers.
With their 2026 top-three finish, the Black and Gold concluded the year within the Sun Belt’s regular-season top three teams for the third time in their first four seasons in the league.
The Knights’ 16 points also represented the second most accrued by the team in their Sun Belt era, trailing only the 19 points UCF racked up to clinch a second-place finish with a 6-2-1 conference record in 2023.
They did it behind yet another Drew Hansen game-winning goal and junior forward Izán Martínez’s second goal of the season, withstanding a Georgia Southern offensive storm that featured 21 total shot attempts.
Martínez first broke the ice in just the contest’s 17th minute, receiving a long feed from Younes Boudinar into the offensive end before finishing with an accurate strike just below the crossbar.
After the Eagles tallied an equalizer in the 48th minute, just moments after Knights defender Timothy Arias was shown a red card to put the Black and Gold down a man for the majority of the second half, Hansen saw his torrid pace throughout the last few weeks continue on.
The Knights redshirt junior was the beneficiary of a pair of wayward passes by Eagles defenders, as the ball squirted out to Hansen just past midfield to give the forward a breakaway scoring opportunity.
He took full advantage of his chance, fending off a pair of Eagles before dribbling past a crashing Georgia Southern keeper and netting the decisive second score into an empty net.
The goal represented Hansen’s 12th of the season, fifth in his last three matches, and eighth in his last six contests. In helping clinch UCF’s third consecutive win, Hansen has also been responsible for the game-winner in each of the Black and Gold’s last three outings as well.
Throughout the last week of play alone, Hansen paced the Sun Belt Conference with eight total points and three goals as he bids for a third consecutive league Offensive Player of the Week nod, and he also represented one of just two players in the Sun Belt to tally multiple assists this week as well.
Overall, the Cleveland, North Carolina native finishes the regular season as the Sun Belt’s outright overall leader in goals (12), points (27), and multi-point games (4), and in Sun Belt Conference play also led the league in total points (18), goals (8) and multi-point games (3).
UP NEXT
UCF turns its attention to postseason play, as the Knights, having clinched the No. 3 seed in the 2026 Sun Belt Men’s Soccer Conference Championship, are set for a first-round matchup against sixth-seeded South Carolina. Opening kick is set for 7 p.m. from Hoops Family Field in Huntington, West Virginia Sunday, Nov. 8, and will be streamed live on ESPN+.
ABOUT UCF ATHLETICS
UCF is a proud member of the Big 12 Conference. Our mission is to positively transform the lives of our students academically, athletically, and personally through a nationally competitive intercollegiate athletics program that enhances the reputation and visibility of the University. We strive to be Florida's preeminent athletic program representing UCF and our community with distinction on the national stage as "Orlando's Hometown Team". To learn more about UCF and Athletics, please visit our website at www.ucf.edu and www.ucfknights.com.