Kentucky Men's Soccer Rallies Back to Stay Alive in Sun Belt Tournament

No. 2 Kentucky Men’s Soccer began postseason play in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Sunday night at The Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington. The ‘Cats are the number one seed and went up against South Carolina, which was the tournament’s number eight seed.

🚨Here at The Bell🚨
#2 @UKMensSoccer looks to start their run in the @SunBelt Conference Tournament against South Carolina @ZGeogheganKSR @KySportsRadio pic.twitter.com/2DgMx8pAly

— katelyn perkins (@KPerkinsKSR) November 6, 2022

A Slow Start for the ‘Cats

Kentucky kicked off the match with a rough start. Although they maintained the majority of possession, the ‘Cats could not find the back of the net.

South Carolina was the aggressor coming out of the gate. When they were able to get possession of the ball on their end of the field, a run was made for the box to try and find a goal.

After a high-energy start for South Carolina, they were able to get their first goal in the 17′ of the first half.

🚨GOAL🚨
The Gamecocks find the back of the net around the 27’ 1H and go up 1-Nil on @UKMensSoccer @ZGeogheganKSR pic.twitter.com/F22nmer7XF

— katelyn perkins (@KPerkinsKSR) November 7, 2022

The rest of the first half was a lot of back-and-forth possessions, but neither team could move the ball into the net. Going into halftime, UK still found themselves down 1-0.

🚨HALFTIME🚨@UKMensSoccer:0, South Carolina:1@ZGeogheganKSR pic.twitter.com/XRe2geF2OD

— katelyn perkins (@KPerkinsKSR) November 7, 2022

Newfound energy coming out of the half

You could feel the energy emitting from the ‘Cats coming out of the locker room after halftime. A lot of this energy came from the 1,499 fans that cheered Kentucky on throughout the entire match.

With the help of these fans and being the aggressor in the second half, senior Eythor Bjorgolfsson found Kentucky its first goal off assists from Robert Screen and Ben Damge in the 59′ of the second half.

After their first goal, Kentucky caught fire, and in the 74′ Damge himself came up with the score off of an assist from sophomore Casper Grening. Damge’s goal helped the ‘Cats overcome their early match deficit to go up 2-1 on South Carolina.

🚨GOAL UK🚨
Here in the 74’ and @UKMensSoccer is able to get another score which makes it 2-1 in favor of the Cats pic.twitter.com/vXTuSFfaBH

— katelyn perkins (@KPerkinsKSR) November 7, 2022

‘Cats remain resilient

With an energy boost coming into the second half, UK rallied from behind to come back and obtain the victory in their first round of play in the conference tournament with a score of 2-1.

Moving forward, Kentucky will match up against #4 seed West Virginia on Wednesday, November 9th at 7:00 pm at The Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington, KY.