Yuki Sekiguchi’s Goal Lifts 10-Man Golden Hurricane to 1-0 Win Over UAB

Friday, September 29

Hurricane Stadium

7:00 pm

Tulsa

4-3-2, 2-0-0

UAB

0-5-4, 0-2-1

Team	1	2	Final F
UAB	0	0	0
Tulsa	1	0	1

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Yuki Sekiguchi’s Goal Lifts 10-Man Golden Hurricane to 1-0 Win Over UAB

9/29/2023 11:08:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Box Score (PDF) | Season Stats (PDF)

TULSA, Okla. – Despite going down a man midway through the first half, the University of Tulsa men's soccer team held off UAB 1-0 on Friday evening at the Hurricane Soccer Stadium thanks to an early goal from Yuki Sekiguchi.

Tulsa improved to 4-3-2 on the season, and 2-0 in The American Athletic Conference. UAB continues to look for its first win of the season, dropping to 0-5-4 and 0-2-1 in conference play.

The Hurricane was ahead 1-0 in the 37th minute when goalkeeper Cedrik Stern was shown a straight red card for blocking a shot with his arm from well outside the box. Tulsa played the remaining 53 minutes down a man but was able to come away with the win and the shutout.

"I thought the players worked exceptionally hard and kept their composure after going a man down," head coach Tom McIntosh said. "We had a few spells of possession, particularly at the end of the first half after were down a player. I thought we were really good then. We created a good chance and probably should've scored, but instead hit the post.

"In the second half we defended well and limited their chances. Maybe we didn't get as many chances as we would've liked, but when you're a man down for nearly 60 minutes, it makes it difficult."

The Golden Hurricane will return to action on Wednesday evening at the Hurricane Soccer Stadium when Tulsa welcomes South Florida for an American Athletic Conference matchup. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. and will air on ESPN+.

How it Happened
The Golden Hurricane opened the scoring with hardly seven minutes off the clock. There was a flurry of Tulsa chances in front of the net, with the ball falling to the feet of Sergio Baena near the goal line on the left side. His attempted cross was headed away to Sakiguchi, who had a difficult angle on the left side of the box and multiple defenders, including the goalkeeper in the way. Sekiguchi used his left foot to hit a volley directly into the ground, lifting it over the jumping keeper and a defender into the right side of the net to put Tulsa up 1-0.

UAB didn't give up, however, forcing three saves from Stern over the next 29 minutes. In the 37th minute, a turnover left Stern out of position. The goalkeeper blocked an attempted shot from a UAB attacker but was whistled for a handball and shown a red card, sending Tulsa down to 10 men for the remainder of the match.
Junior goalkeeper Alex Lopez, who didn't start the match, entered and helped Tulsa get the shutout. Both Lopez and Stern made three saves in the match.

Will Edwards nearly doubled Tulsa's lead near the end of the half when he broke down the right side and his low driven shot beat the goalkeeper. However, it hit the right post and harmlessly rolled away.

The second half had five yellow cards handed out and a couple of close calls, but in the end, the Hurricane saw it's 1-0 lead stand as the final whistle blew.

Game Notes

UAB outshot Tulsa 13-7 in the match and 7-4 in shots on goal.
The Blazers also held a 9-1 advantage in corners.
There was one red card and five yellow cards in the game.

Scoring Summary
Tulsa 1 0 - 1
UAB 0 0 - 0

Individual Scoring
Yuki Sekiguchi (Tulsa) at 7:04

Goalkeeper Saves
Cedrik Stern (Tulsa) – 3
Alex Lopez (Tulsa) – 3
Jonathan Munteanu (UAB) – 3
TEAM (Tulsa) – 1