UK Finally Breaks Through, Advances to Second Round

Kentucky just kept on pressing for the breakthrough.
 
With Loyola (Chicago) clinging to a 1-0 lead as the second half wore on, the Wildcats knew their season was on the line. Johan Cedergren knew it too.
 
“Right before we got the penalty, these guys were fighting, but on the inside I’ve seen this one before,” Cedergren said.
 
After one shot was saved brilliantly, another glanced off the post and one more went just wide, UK drew that penalty and Jason Reyes converted it to force overtime. Once there, Eythor Bjorgolfsson delivered the golden-goal winner in the second period with an expertly finished header. With the 2-1 victory, Kentucky advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
 
“It’s all about probabilities,” Cedergren said. “The ball bounces the right way or the wrong way. You can play well or you can’t play well. What we talk about all the time is we just want to play well and then whatever happens happens.”
 
For 45 minutes Thursday at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex, UK wasn’t living up to its end of the bargain on that front. The visiting Ramblers found a first-half goal and UK didn’t even manage a single shot. At halftime, the Cats faced reality.
 
“You could tell we were a little nervous in the first half, didn’t play as well as we wanted,” Cedergren said. “… We had some really harsh words at halftime as a squad because I do think that in postseason play you kind of do have to lay everything on the line. Either you play as hard as you can and then the result is what the result is or you let the occasion get to you.”
 
It wasn’t just Cedergren delivering those harsh words either. UK’s two captains – Aimé Mabika and Bailey Rouse – took it upon themselves to echo their coach.
 
“The first half wasn’t good enough,” Mabika said. “We didn’t have to hear that from Johan. He didn’t need to bring a notebook in there and show us anything tactically or technically that we could do.”
 
For Kentucky, coming off a run to the Elite Eight last year, the second half really came down to one simple question. It’s the same question the Cats kept asking themselves as they came up empty on chance after chance.
 
“When we walk off the field, are we satisfied?” Rouse said. “If we’re going to go and maybe hit the post 15, 20 times and it ends 1-0, it ends 1-0. But I think it’s just a trust and belief in our teammates to know that eventually the right things are going to happen if we keep doing the small things right.”
 
Of course, doing the small things did ultimately yield two big goals for the Cats.
 
“We as a group decided that this is not how we were not going to go out,” Cedergren said. “And I think that we were much better in the second half and much better in overtime, so I’m really proud of the whole team.”
 
Thanks to that effort, a trip to face No. 5 Indiana now awaits the Wildcats. IU and UK will face off Sunday at noon in a rematch of a scoreless tie also played in Bloomington, Indiana.
 
“We played IU very close when we were there earlier in the season, so we’re excited to get to play them again,” Cedergren said. “They’re the eight-time national champion. It’s going to be a really tough game, but I also know how tough of team we have here.”