Statesboro, Ga. --- The Georgia Southern men's soccer team defeated the UCF Knights (5-5-3, 3-4 SBC) 2-0 this past Sunday night (October 27th).
To start the match, UCF was all over the offense as they rallied for eight shots in the opening 45 minutes. On the flip side, their defense also was sound as they held the Eagles to just a singular shot all match. The two teams locked horns defensively heading into the locker room, as it was scoreless.
Georgia Southern flipped their switch offensively in the second half, as they capitalized on the chances they had. In the 68th minute,
Kevin Pierre made a quick run from midfield to the edge of the box untouched where he passed out to
Harvey Sarajian. The freshman forward had plenty of space, and decided to fire a shot that hit the side netting past the keeper to give the Eagles the lead. It's Sarajian's fourth goal of the season and his first in four matches.
Georgia Southern was not finished yet as 11 minutes later, a throw in by Sarajian into the box hit off multiple players from both sides before falling at the feet of
Ricky Louis in the box. Even though his body was angled, Louis used a nifty backheel that caught the keeper off guard to put the Eagles up 2-0. For the other freshman striker in Louis, it also is his fourth goal of the season and it breaks a spell of five matches since his last.
The final 13 minute saw Georgia Southern's defense hold strong, only allowing four shots in the second half to their own five. When the final whistle was blown, UCF actually outshot the Eagles 12-6 on the night. However, the accuracy was vastly different. The Knights only had one shot on target while half of Georgia Southern's six were on target. The Eagles also managed to fend off eight UCF corner kicks while not taking a single one on the windy night. Each team had nine fouls and each goalkeeper made one save.
The win marks the first victory over UCF in their last four tries and the last win over the Knights came in 1997. The win also erases a four-match streak without a win after a brutal part of the schedule,
"In the second half, it was just a matter of did we have the belief and quality to to break through while still being resilient and defensively strong at the other end," said coach Squires on the win. "Give a lot of credit to the guys that started the second half, because they kept Harvey and Ricky fresh so they can have the legs to stretch UCF as the game gets stretched. Harvey's brilliance with the strike and then an opportunistic second goal gave us the cushion. I thought we fully deserved the three points based on that second half, but we hung in there in the first half when we needed to and then took over in the second when we could."
Georgia Southern (6-4-4, 2-3-2 SBC) have their final home match next on the schedule as Old Dominion comes to town on the first of November. Kickoff at Bo Pitts Field for Senior Day is set for 7 PM on Friday.
