Men’s soccer shut out in Louisville blackout

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By Clark Brooks

LOUISVILLE — The No. 7 Louisville Cardinals defeated UK 1-0 on a cold and wet night at Cardinal Park in the annual Battle of the Bluegrass.

The game appeared to meet expectations of a heated rivalry game from the get-go. Louisville forced a clutch save from UK’s Dan Williams in the opening minutes, quickly followed by a header by senior forward Marco dos Santos in the 13th minute forcing Louisville keeper Andre Boudreaux to make a diving save.

“Louisville is a very finesse-oriented team,” Williams said. “We know what they are always capable of.”

Dos Santos earned a yellow card while chasing down a high ball after inadvertently running into Boudreaux in the box two minutes later.

For the next 20 minutes, both teams had a balanced control of the ball and weren’t able to produce any extended amount of offense. Cardinal Phil Edginton, however, broke the tie with a ricochet goal off a free kick in the 34th minute.

“It was a tough goal to give up,” Williams said. “I was just out of position.”

Play continued until the power went out at Cardinal Park in the 41st minute and delayed the game for 20 minutes until the lights came back on. However the field was soon again pitch black four minutes later, 13 seconds from halftime.

The Cats started the second half with intensity and an urge to notch things up, but the Cards’ defense remained strong. UK had two tries in back-to-back minutes, but both chances were stopped by Louisville defenders on team saves on the goal line.

Besides those two opportunities, the Cards were able to control the ball for the majority of the half, which effectively chewed up the clock.

The last good opportunity UK had to tie the game came in the 82nd minute when a try from dos Santos was just over the goal.

This loss dropped the Cats to 8-5-0 in 2009, one more loss than all of last season, and marked the first time UK lost to Louisville at Cardinal Park in the history of the program. The Cats are 1-3 in Conference USA this season.

UK came into the match 5-0-2 against the Cards on the road. UK has lost four of its last five games. Louisville, on the other hand, continues to have one of the best years in school history and improves to 9-1-2.

“It has been the story of the year,” UK head coach Ian Collins said. “We’re missing too many chances right now. We just haven’t been too lucky lately.”