STATESBORO, Ga. – The UAB men’s soccer team (1-1) had a number of opportunities throughout the match but could not capitalize as the Blazers fell 3-2 to Georgia Southern (1-2) Saturday night in Statesboro.
“You can’t win a lot of college soccer games conceding goals,” said head coach Jeff Kinney. “I thought in moments we played some of our best soccer in the last two years, but this game is about scoring goals and not giving them up. Georgia Southern deserve a lot of credit for taking their chances well and taking advantage of our mistakes. The boys fought back to make it interesting at the end, but unfortunately, we didn’t quite have enough in the tank. We look forward to bouncing back against Georgia State in a few days.”
The Blazers first chance of the night came from Grayson Dupont who narrowly missed firing just wide of the bottom left corner of the net in the 16th minute. Two minutes later Georgia Southern struck first off, the right foot of Alhaji Tambadu to put the Eagles up 1-0.
UAB had another great opportunity in the 21st minute as Nathaniel St. Louis dribbled past the keeper but had his shot cleared at the last second by a Georgia Southern defender.
The Eagles’ second goal of the night came in the 34th minute as Adam Davies sent a strike into the back of the net from inside the box.
Blake White had an opportunity to cut the UAB deficit to one in the 41st minute but his shot went wide left and Georgia Southern took the 2-0 lead into the half.
Fifteen minutes in to the second half the Blazers had another scoring opportunity as Krenar Krasniqi made a run down the right side of the field connecting with St. Louis who sent a diving header wide of the post.
Georgia Southern added its third goal in the 67th minute when Gaye Diadie finished off a corner kick from Jeremiah Luoma.
UAB cut the deficit to 3-1 in the 69th minute as Cale Loughrey sent a rocket of a shot from 28 yards out past the keeper for his first goal as a Blazer.
Tensions began to rise late in the match as CJ Mitchell-Smith was issued a red card for Georgia Southern leading them to play the final 14 minutes with only 10 men.
The Blazers added one more goal with seven seconds left from Dupont, but the rally came too late ending in a 3-2 victory for Georgia Southern.
UAB fired off 13 shots to Georgia Southern’s six with each side recording four shots on goal. The Blazers earned 13 corner kicks in the match with plenty of offensive threats but came up short unable to convert off the set pieces.
The Blazers will make a quick trip back to Georgia next week as they take on Georgia State in Atlanta at 4 p.m. on Wednesday evening.
Men’s soccer season tickets are on sale by purchasing the 2020-21 Gold Card for $65 here. The Gold Card is an exclusive offer that grants you admission into all UAB men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball events for the upcoming academic year. Contact the UAB Ticket Office at (205) 975-UAB1 for more details.
For more information on the UAB men’s soccer team, follow @UAB_MSoc on Twitter and Instagram.
