Tulsa Falls to #18 UCF in The American Championship

Saturday, April 17

Orlando, Fla.

6:00 pm

Tulsa

7-4-1, 6-3-1

UCF

9-3-0, 7-3-0

Tulsa

UCF

Tulsa Falls to #18 UCF in The American Championship

4/17/2021 9:31:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Box Score in PDF l Season Stats in PDF l Photo Gallery

The Tulsa men's soccer team dropped a 1-0 decision to 18^th-ranked UCF on Saturday night in the American Athletic Conference Championship at the UCF Soccer and Track Complex in Orlando, Fla. The Golden Hurricane fell to 6-4-2 on the season, while the Knights moved to 8-3-1 overall.

"UCF started the game very well. They moved the ball well for the first 15 minutes and they had a great strike on goal, but after that I thought our stamina and our passing started to take over. We started to press better with our front players and for 75 minutes we were in control of the game and trying to get one to go. We hit the crossbar a couple of times, had some near misses and one that looked to be a goal not counted," Head Coach Tom McIntosh said.

"I am gutted for our players. I couldn't ask any more from our players. I feel like I am one of the luckiest coaches around to coach these guys and I am just disappointed for them because they didn't get what they wanted and what they deserved. I am just proud of this group. After going through a few difficult seasons this group has breathed live back into the program. We have a lot of good players coming back and we'll see what happens on Monday. Hopefully the NCAA committee will look at the game and the fact that we finished second in the regular season and we will get an at-large bid. There is no doubt in my mind that we are one of the best 36 teams in the country."

This was Tulsa fourth appearance in The American's title game as TU claimed the championship in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Lucca Dourado put the Knights on the board as he drilled in a kick into the upper left corner with just 8:40 ticked off the clock. The two teams battled and the Golden Hurricane had two solid shot attempts in the 27^th minute back-to-back from Til Zinnhardt and Jonathan Cervantes. The attempts had to be reviewed through officials replay but were determined not to have crossed the goal line. TU had a 6-4 lead in shots, including a 4-2 advantage in shots on goal, but went into halftime down, 1-0.

Will Edwards took a great shot at the 55:52 mark that bounced off the cross bar, Cervantes had a free kick from 30 yards out that he drilled into the goalkeepers' hands at the 83:05 mark, and then Mariano Fazio hit the crossbar at the 85:50 mark.

The Golden Hurricane had an 11-4 lead in shots, including a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal, and a 5-2 lead in corner kicks.

Cervantes had a team-best four shots, Fazio added two attempts and five others had one shot. Lucas Cline logged all 90 minutes in goal and picked up one save.

Tulsa will wait for the NCAA Tournament bracket to be announced on Monday afternoon to learn if they will continue to play or if the season has been completed.

Scoring Summary
Tulsa 0 0 - 0
UCF 1 0 - 1

Individual Scoring
Lucca Dourado (UCF) at 8:40 (unassisted)

Goalkeeper Saves
Lucas Cline (Tulsa) – 1
Yannik Oettl (UCF) – 5