The No. 15 ranked UK men’s soccer team was able to grab a win in their final non-conference game of the season, as they defeated the Evansville Aces 3-1 Wednesday evening.

With the win, the Cats improve to 7-2-2 overall for the season.

Both teams were very aggressive throughout the match, as 23 fouls were committed between both teams. The Cats were owners of 14 of those fouls, one of which was a yellow card assessed to Sam Stockton in the 65th minute.

UK scored the first goal of the game in the 15th minute as Napo Matsoso put the Cats up 1-0 with his third goal of the season. UK would go into halftime maintaining that 1-0 lead.

UK would score again in the 73rd minute as freshman JJ Williams scored his first goal of his career to extend the Cats’ lead to 2-0.

From here, the Aces increased the offensive pressure to try to get back in the game. 

The Aces scored their only goal of the match in the 83rd minute as Aces star Ian McGrath scored his sixth goal of the season to trim the Cats’ lead to one. 

In the final minute of the match, the Aces shifted all of their focus to offense trying to tie the game before the end of regulation. 

That lack of attention on defense hurt the Aces as one of the UK defenders was able to kick the ball into Evansville territory, where Matsoso was left wide open for an easy second goal with 10 seconds left in the game.

UK’s defense proved to be tough yet again, limiting the Aces to only nine shots in the game, one of which was on goal.

Meanwhile UK took 13 shots in the game, eight of which were on goal.

The single goal UK allowed this match was only the sixth goal allowed all year for the Cats. 

The Cats will now shift back to conference play as they face the UAB Blazers on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala. The match will kickoff at 7 p.m. EST.