The Kentucky men’s soccer team needed 104 minutes to find a breakthrough, but junior co-captain JJ Williams’ 10th goal of the season gave the No. 5/4 Wildcats their 10th win of the year by a 1-0 scoreline against Conference USA foe Marshall on Saturday night at The Bell.
Cole Guindon and Kalil ElMedkhar combined along the left flank to start the winning move eventually finding Williams who dribbled into the box. The junior then cut it back and curled a right-footed shot that was deflected ever-so-slightly to find the right side netting.
Goalkeeper Enrique Facusse and the back line of Tanner Hummel, Aimé Mabika, Leon Jones and Cole Guindon kept their ninth clean sheet of the season, second most in the nation to date (St. Marys, Ca., has 10).
Kentucky (10-1-1, 4-1-0 C-USA) moved into a three-way tie atop the league table with 12 points from five games. FIU, which plays at Charlotte on Sunday, has 12 from four and Old Dominion has 12 from five.
“We would have loved to have ended this game a lot earlier,” Williams said. “It was a great win just to know that everyone still bought in, everyone still battled and everyone still wants to win every single game.
“The back line shut down everything back there, and that’s how we were able to lock them in and keep coming at them with chance after chance.”
Marshall dropped to 4-6-2, 1-2-1 C-USA.
The notes
The Wildcats out-shot Marshall by a staggering 28-5 margin including a 15-1 shots on goal edge. Williams and Daniel Evans tied for the team lead with six shots apiece, with Evans and Jason Reyes tying for most shots on goal with three apiece.
Kentucky’s 28 shots moved into a five-way-tie for fifth most in a game in program history.
Williams is now tied with Toby McComas for sixth most goals in a season. McComas scored 10 in 1994. The single-season program record is Riley O’Neill’s 17 in 2006.
Williams now has 16 career goals, moving into a tie with Todd Weissmueller (1992-1995) for 10th most in program history.
Williams has six game-winning goals this season, which is the program record. His seven-career game winners ranks in a four-way tie for third most in school history, three off the all-time record.
Kentucky has won 10 games for the fifth time in Cedergren’s seven-year tenure (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018). UK has won at least 10 games 19 time dating to 1991.
The Wildcats have allowed six goals in 12 games so far. UK lowered its goals-against average, which ranked sixth in the nation entering the weekend, to 0.48.
Facusse made one save on Saturday. The sophomore has stopped 32 of the 38 shots he’s faced this year. He raised his save percentage, which ranked 14th nationally, to 86 percent.
The Wildcats have scored 22 goals this season.
UK is 7-0 at home this season, and has scored 13 and conceded none at The Bell to date.
UK improved to 2-0-1 in overtime games this season. Kentucky is 13-1-17 all-time in overtime matches during Cedergren’s tenure. Dating to Sept. 2012 UK is undefeated in overtime matches, a 13-0-7 run.
The quote
“Really happy to get a win,” Kentucky head coach Johan Cedergren said. “It was nice after last weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever been part of a this – 28 shots, 15 shots on goal – and to win in the second overtime period.
“Very happy with the game – the way we played. Hoped to have scored a goal earlier, but I thought we played as a team, we fought for each other, we battled. We made sure we were okay defensively and in the end we got the win. It was nice to get back to winning ways and now we just have to get ready for a very tough game up in Columbus, (Ohio) on Tuesday.”
The history
Kentucky leads the all-time series against Marshall 20-9-3. UK snapped a Marshall two-game winning streak in the series as the Thundering Herd won in the regular season and then first round of the Conference USA Tournament last year. UK had won the previous five meetings before last season.
Kentucky is 10-4-1 against Marshall in Lexington all-time.
The next ones
Kentucky will play its last non-conference away match of the regular season Tuesday at Ohio State.
UK has five regular-season matches remaining, three in conference. The next C-USA opponent UK will face will be New Mexico on Sunday, Oct. 21 at 1 p.m. ET at The Bell.
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For the latest on the Kentucky men’s soccer team, follow @UKMensSoccer on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
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For more information contact:
Jake Most