Sept. 3, 1999

LAS VEGAS – The University of Kentucky men’s soccer team openedits 1999 season with a win on Friday night, ripping UC Santa Barbara 5-1 infirst-round action at the UNLV Rebel Classic.

The Cats (1-0) wasted little time in opening scoring, as MichaelStickler found the net off a Giovanni Fernandes assist in the 12th minute.

J.D. Stephenson followed in the 36th minute, as the UK freshmantallieda goal in his first collegiate game to make the score 2-0.

In the second stanza, Jason Bell exploded for a pair of goals, in the55th and 61st minutes, to widen the margin to 4-0.

After the Gauchos (1-1) narrowed the score to 4-1 in the 64th minute,Stickler again answered the bell for the Cats, blasting home a Brent Raineycorner at 69:34 to push the score to 5-1.

“Of course we’re happy to start the season off with a win,” UK Coach IanCollins said. “We were able to capitalize on our scoring chances and come outon top. We still have some thing to work on, but we’ve certainly gotten off toa good start.”

The Cats return to action on Sunday, when they face host UNLV in thechampionship match of the Rebel Classic at 3 p.m. ET.

UNLV Rebel Classic
Las Vegas, Nev.

First Round ResultsUNLV 2, West Virginia 1UK , UCSB

1 2 FUK 2 3 5 UCSB 0 1 1

Goals: UK- Michael Stickler (Giovanni Fernandes) 11:38, J.D. Stepheson (none)35:26, Jason Bell (Lee Baker, Antti Peltonen) 54:08, Bell (Baker) 60:35, Stickler (Rainey) 69:34, UCSB- Jaime Ambriz (Kenny Newendrop) 63:18