Nov. 14, 2008

Box Score

DALLAS, Texas - Second-seeded Kentucky’s Barry Rice, the two-time Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year, headed in cross from Jason Griffiths in the 66th minute for his fifth career game-winning goal to give the Wildcats a 1-0 victory over No. 6 UCF Friday night in the C-USA Men’s Soccer Championship semifinals at Westcott Field in Dallas, Texas, on the campus of SMU.

With the win, Kentucky pushed its school record unbeaten streak to nine games and advanced to its second C-USA Men’s Soccer Championship game in the last three years. The Wildcats lost to top-seeded SMU in the 2006 final also as a No. 2 seed.

The teams played a scoreless first half as Kentucky controlled the action on the south end of the field as it had the wind at its backs and used it to its advantage.

UK dominated both shots and corner kicks in the stanza, holding a 12-2 and 6-1 advantage, respectively. Rice led his club in shots with three, while Chad Hagerty added two. Rice also had a shot on goal along with Tim Crone.

Opening the second half, it was expected the same would be seen, but Kentucky was just too physical and forced the action into the wind. The aggressiveness paid off when Rice was finally able to put the Wildcats on the board.

Hagerty played the ball to Griffiths, who lofted a cross from about 30 yards out to the far post. Rice, a member of the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy National Player of the Year Watch List, rose up from about two yards out, firing a hard-hit header shot into the back corner of the net for a 1-0 UK lead. The goal marked Rice’s second of the year and the assist Griffiths second of the season and Hagerty’s team-best sixth of the year.

For the game, Rice won 11-of-13 of his contested header attempts.

UK finished the contest with a 26-5 advantage on shots and an 8-2 edge in shots on goal. The Wildcats also controlled the corner kick ledger, 14-3.

For the Knights, sophomore keeper Sean Johnson had a great night in the box, save for the Rice goal. He played 79 minutes in before being moved to forward to spark the UCF offense. He faced all 26 Kentucky shots and made seven saves to improve his league-leading total to 108.

Kentucky head coach Ian Collins was pleased with his team’s effort on a chilly and windy night.

”I thought both teams really scrapped hard and it was a big win for us,” Collins said. “The wind was obviously a factor in the game. Give UCF a ton of credit, they really battled and used the wind and had the game 0-0 in the first half. The second half, I thought we really played well, we had a lot of chances and we were really dangerous. Give credit to UCF, they have come a long way and (coach) Brian Cunningham has done a great job. Credit to our players too, going against the wind, I really thought we buckled down.”

Kentucky (12-4-4) will play the winner of the second semifinal game between No. 1 Tulsa and No. 5 South Carolina on Sunday at 1 p.m. LIVE on CBS College Sports for the C-USA Men’s Soccer Championship.

UCF ended the season at 7-11-1.

For complete C-USA Men’s Soccer Championship information visit www.ConferenceUSA.com