The UCF Men’s Soccer team stunned #11 Georgia Southern in a convincing 3-0 win on Friday.
Georgia Southern came into today’s game as the 16th-ranked RPI team in the nation. UCF (4-5-1, 2-2 Sun Belt) was 0-4-1 vs. top 25 teams entering this game, earning their first victory against a top 25 opponent this season.
Head coach Scott Calabrese said the conference win was huge for the team’s confidence, taking down its first ranked opponent of the season.
“Clearly now we’ve got a little bit of confidence,”
Calabrese said. “Got some confidence coming off the South Carolina win, where I also thought we played well and tonight, again, really good result, an important conference result. A team that has a really strong RPI, so I think that’s really important.”
With their first shot on goal in the first 20 seconds, the Knights pressured the Eagles early and often finishing with 16 shots, six of them being on goal. Georgia Southern, on the other hand, had just five total shots with two on goal.
The Knights got on the board in the sixth minute after forward Lilian Ricol scored his fourth goal of the season on a one-on-one against the goalkeeper. Forward Clarence Awoudor was credited with his first of two assists of the night. Now with nine assists on the season, he accounts for more than half of the team’s 17 so far this season.
Ricol echoed a similar message to his coach when reflecting on the difference between the team now and the one from the last home game.
“It’s important because now we see we can beat a top 15 team, and it was 3-0, so we were so much better in this game, and so we just keep this confidence and, like, play every game like this, and we win every game.”
After Ricol’s goal to open the game, UCF then earned a free kick. Forward Claudel N’goubou collected the rebound and sent a strike through the net to extend the lead to 2-0 in the first half.
The Knights would not let up there. Midfielder Joey Mueller scored his first goal of the season off an assist from forward Malick Thiaw before the first half closed, extending the lead to 3-0.
“So much momentum comes from those moments. I think in the second half we could have gone 5-0 up against a top 25 team… they’re known for not letting teams build that momentum. And for us to get that tonight against them at home with our fans, it’s huge. The tides are shifting,” Mueller said.
The Knights will face Bradley on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for their next match on Senior Knight. Muellar said it is important to honor them this week for what they have built at UCF.
“There is no culture without our guys who have been here for a longer period of time,” Muellar said. “I think these few days following into Tuesday, as much as we can do to honor them and let them know that the reason that we have this culture and the reason that we’re turning it around is because they’re here and they can show us the way and they have.”
