Kentucky men’s soccer (3-3-5, 2-0-2 Sun Belt) hosted Bradley (4-6-2, 1-3 MVC) at The Bell Soccer Complex on Tuesday evening in a match that ended in a 2-2 draw.
Kickoff was right around 7 p.m. and the action started quickly with both teams applying pressure and defense. Kentucky had many different opportunities to score early in the first half, but Bradley defenders made great plays to stop the ball from going into the back of the net. Both teams remained scoreless as time dwindled in the first half.
In the last second of the first half, Kentucky found a scoring opportunity as senior Martin Soereide scored his first goal of the season for the Wildcats. The goal was assisted by Silas Borgman. Soereide’s goal was a right footed shot into the bottom left of the goal, to give the Wildcats a 1-0 advantage at halftime.
After the halftime break, both teams came out strong and more aggressive, which resulted in one yellow card being given to each team. In the 51st minute, Charlie Dickerson found an open shot to tie the match 1-1. He was assisted by teammate Joao Saraiva. Just a few minutes later in the 60th minute, DJ Koulai scored to give the Braves a 2-1 lead.
“I’m just frustrated because I think that we shouldn’t give up the two goals we gave up. There’s two guys, you know the first goal is to set piece, and the guys are unmarked, and everyone gets an assignment, everyone gets an assigned number, and you just have to stay with you man,” Kentucky Head Coach Johan Cedergren said. “The second one, again, we are playing three center backs. We have two center backs in and neither of them are marking the guy that ends up scoring.”
Following the two goals, play went on for another 25 minutes without a score until fifth-year senior Nick Zielonka made an upper ninety shot outside the 18th box, with an assist by freshman Mateo Franzotti to tie the match at 2-2.
Six freshmen started for the Wildcats, and all six came into the match with good leadership roles, ready to fight for a win and show everyone that they are capable of competing at this level.
“This is Bains first minutes; I thought he did really well. I thought Jabari was very good in the first half. I think that’s good signs from them,” Cedergren said. “Some of the freshmen have been playing a lot, I thought again did really well. I thought Oliver did really well in midfield. It was nice to see Victor come and get some minutes at the end. I thought he helped us again with his size and presence on set pieces.”
Junior Ryan Jack, goalkeeper for the Wildcats, received Defensive Player of the Week honors for the Sun Belt Conference. His season record improved to 2-1-3 following the draw.
“I think he’s a fantastic goalkeeper, and he’s done really well for us this year. I do think that we make it incredibly hard for him by not marking in the box, but I thought he was good today, and I don’t think that either of those two goals we can blame Ryan for,” Cedergren said. “I think he’s done a really good job and he’s someone that consistently comes every single day, he’s a positive force in the locker room, he works really hard on the training field and he’s done really well.”
The Wildcats will be traveling on a two-game conference road trip to James Madison University (JMU) on Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. EST and Central Florida on Oct. 23. Kentucky will return to The Bell Soccer Complex to host Coastal Carolina on Oct. 27.
