The Tulsa men’s soccer team tied UCF, 2-2, but will advance to the American Athletic Conference Championship semifinals on a 4-2 shootout on Saturday night at the Hurricane Soccer and Track Stadium.  TU moved to 7-6-4 on the season, while the Knights ended their season with a 7-8-2 overall mark.

 

“It was a great shootout,” Head Coach Tom McIntosh said.  “The guys all stuck their PK’s well and they are very confident when they get in that situation.  I thought we played well, particularly in the first half, but to be a goal down was disappointing.  We moved the ball well, but UCF did a good job in the second half of disrupting our flow a little bit.  Fortunately resiliency is the beauty of this group.  We’ve had so many opportunities where they could have thrown in the towel and not once have they ever thrown in the towel.  Their resiliency is probably the greatest part of this team right now.”

 

Hadji Barry put the Knights on the board at the 27:05 mark as he went one-on-one with the keeper and shot from two yards out into an open net.

 

Lesley Nchanji evened the score at the 51:00 mark as he headed in a goal off a combination from Juan Sanchez and Cole Poppen, but Barry put UCF up once again just 67-seconds later off a pass from C.J. Campbell.

 

Michael Mitrik came in off the bench and tied the score at 2-2 in the 81^st minute as he headed in a ball played in off a corner kick taken by Zach Jackson.

 

Neither team could find the back of the net in the final 10 minutes of regulation or either 10-minute overtime period and the game went into penalty kicks to determine which team would advance in the conference tournament.

 

UCF went first in the shootout, missing their first and second attempt, while Zack Stavrou and Ray Saari both scored their attempts.  Then UCF hit their next two shots, while the Hurricane’s Geoffrey Dee and Cole Poppen also scored both of theirs to make the fifth-attempts by each team unnecessary as TU had a 4-2 lead.

 

Tulsa had a 24-8 lead in shots, including a 5-4 advantage in shots on goal, and an 8-3 lead in corner kicks. 

 

Saari and Kay Duit both had a team-best four shots, while Nchanji and Dee each had three attempts.  Jake McGuire logged all 90 minutes in goal and picked up two saves.

 

Tulsa will return to action against No. 1 seed SMU in the American Athletic Conference Championship semifinal on Friday, November 13 at the Corbett Soccer Stadium in Tampa, Fla.  The time will be announced at a later date.

 

Scoring Summary

Tulsa   0          2          0          0          -           2

UCF     1          1          0          0          -           2

 

Individual Scoring

Hadji Barry (UCF) at 27:05 (unassisted)

Lesley Nchanji (Tulsa) at 51:00 (Juan Sanchez / Cole Poppen)

Hadji Barry (UCF) at 52:07 (C.J. Capbell)

Michael Mitrik (Tulsa) at 80:26 (Zach Jackson)

 

Goalkeeper Saves

Jake McGuire (Tulsa) – 2

Brendan Rennie (UCF) – 3

 

Shootout Results (4-2)

Matias Pyysalo - no

Zack Stavrou - yes

Walker Dawkins - no

Ray Saari - yes

Hadji Barry - yes

Geoffrey Dee - yes

Jakov Basic - yes

Cole Poppen - yes