By Jacob Most
Sept. 13, 2014 –
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two goals within three minutes early in the second half gave the UK men’s soccer team its second straight victory, 2-0 over ETSU, on a cool night at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex Saturday.
After neither team produced any chances of consequence in the first half, the Wildcats came out firing after the break.
Kaelon Fox broke the deadlock on 50 minutes after a Justin Laird try from distance was deflected off the cross bar and over for a corner.
Napo Matsoso’s corner was glanced on by Andrew McKelvey to Fox who tracked back two paces from his place on the 6-yard box, turned on the ball and fired into the right side of the goal.
Three minutes later Laird sealed the result.
Left back Charlie Reymann dribbled 15 yards down the left flank and whipped a ball into the box to Laird who sidefoot volleyed into the net.
“It was really important to get a result after (defeating top-ranked Notre Dame) on Monday,” head coach Johan Cedergren said. “If we didn’t, then (the win) Monday wouldn’t have mattered. We tried to be hard on the guys in training making sure we broke down tape, had all the units in. I was pretty hard on all of them just saying `we beat the reigning National Champions playing so-so, so let’s see if we can get more out of you guys.’
“That was our whole purpose this week leading up to the game, and I thought we did well … In the end I think we did more than enough to win the game.”
Laird’s goal was his first of the season, and his first since scoring the golden goal against Old Dominion in the 2013 Conference USA Tournament Quarterfinal.
Kentucky won two-straight matches for the first time this season, and improved to 3-2-0 on the season.
The Wildcats have scored a total of five goals in as many games this year, with five seperate Wildcats each having scored once.
Preseason All-Conference USA goalkeeper Callum Irving kept a clean sheet for the second match in a row, after he also blanked top-ranked Notre Dame in a 1-0 win on Monday. Irving’s shutout was the 10th of his career moving him into sixth place alone in the UK all-time record book.
The Wildcats have blanked their opponents in three of their last four outings, and allowed a total of two goals in five matches this year.
UK’s current first-choice back-4 of Raymann, Jordan Wilson, Fox and Matt Quick has allowed just one goal while playing together in front of Irving this season.
“It starts with Cally and goes all the way to the striker in terms of defensive communication,” Fox said of the UK defense’s impressive form. “Covering for one another and believing the worst we can do if we keep a shutout is tie. Keeping three shutouts in four games is what we want. It’s what we play for every game.”
UK’s next match will be its first midweek outing of the season at home against Xavier on Tuesday beginning at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
