MEN’S SOCCER FALLS IN OVERTIME TO No. 10 MICHIGAN, 2-1
Doyle stops 11 in UCF loss.

11/21/10

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (UCFAthletics.com) – Sophomore goalkeeper Shawn Doyle (Ft. Myers, Fla.) matched his career high with 11 saves, but the UCF men’s soccer team fell in overtime to No. 10 Michigan Sunday afternoon in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. In front of nearly 3,000 fans at the U-M Soccer Stadium, the Knights (12-5-3) and Wolverines (15-4-3) played 94:08 before the game was decided by a deflected freekick by Alashe Latif for the winner.

Doyle and the UCF defense kept the nation’s top scorer Soony Saad off the scoresheet in the match. Saad entered the game with 40 points on a national-best 18 goals in 2010.

But it was Alashe’s goal four minutes into overtime that was the heart-breaking end to the Knights’ historic 2010 season. Hamoody Saad’s freekick from 35 yards out was deflected by a leaping Alashe inside the box into the far corner of the net for the sudden-victory tally.

Nik Robson (Auckland, New Zealand) opened the scoring just nine minutes in on a touch inside the box past the sprawling Michigan goalkeeper, Chris Blais. Cameron Cooksey’s (Marietta, Ga.) throw-in from just in front of the UCF bench sailed over the Wolverine defense to the top of the box. Sophomore A.J. Nelson (Ponte Vedra, Fla.) headed the ball to the far post where Robson was waiting to knock in his 11th goal of the season.

Despite UCF scoring the only goal of the half, Michigan dominated play in the early going. The Wolverines finally broke through with the tying goal from Justin Meram in the 50th minute.

Michigan continued to dominate the second half as it had several scoring opportunities throughout the period. All were turned aside by Doyle and the UCF defense.

It looked as if the Wolverines would score the go-ahead goal with just over 11 minutes showing on the clock, but sophomore Andrew Quintana (Miami, Fla.) cleared the ball off the line and away from danger in front of the Knights’ goal.

The Wolverines continued to control play through the end of regulation and into overtime leading to the game winner.

Michigan will now move on to play Conference USA Champion South Carolina next Sunday in Columbia.

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