By Clark Brooks

The No. 22 UK men’s soccer team came into Wednesday’s game heavily favored against Alabama A&M, and the Cats narrowly escaped with a 1-0 victory in a bruising game.

Last year when the Cats played the Bulldogs, the game ended in a lackluster 0-0 tie in OT. But freshman Matt Lodge, who was suffering from a stomach bug, scored off a free-kick 30 yards out in the 25th minute to give the Cats an early lead.

“I just tried to smash it,” Lodge said. “Luckily, I got a favorable bounce and it went in.”

Lodge had already been on a hot streak. After scoring both goals in a 2-1 win Sunday, he was named to Soccer America’s National Team of the Week on Monday.

“Since he’s from another country, he went unnoticed at the beginning of year,” UK head coach Ian Collins said. “His play though has brought him a lot of attention as of late.”

Besides a yellow card issued to senior Marco dos Santos in the 37th minute, the first half belonged to UK.

UK’s defense continued to be rock solid as it didn’t allow a shot on goal the entire half or let the Bulldogs feel comfortable on the offensive end by playing tough and physical.

“We like to press and create challenges,” Collins said. “A couple of their guys got hurt, but it’s the nature of the game sometimes.”

Despite the lead going into the second half, UK didn’t let up on either side of the field and prevented any chance of a comeback.

But there was still plenty of action. After a hard slide-tackle by Byron Vega in the 80th minute, Alabama A&M’s Moses Semakula almost swung on the young freshman. The two were separated before a fight ensued; Semakula was eventually given a yellow card in the 88th minute arguing a call.

“I felt we should have scored on a lot more of our chances,” Collins said. “The first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes is when we stuck to our game plan; between then we played sloppy. But, the win is always the most important thing.”

UK improved to 5-0-0 on the season, its best start since 1995. The Cats ran their school-record, consecutive game unbeaten streak to 15 matches in a row, which dates back to last October.

“Though we won tonight, we need to step up our game,” Lodge said. “But, if we continue to work harder, we’ll keep winning games.”

The Cats open up C-USA play Sunday at the UK Soccer Complex.

“Hopefully, we can stick to our game plan,” Collins said. “We want to move the ball around and use our depth. We need to come out hungry.”