Early Lapses Doom No. 15/9 Kentucky MSOC at UAB

Kentucky allowed two early goals and couldn’t completely dig out, losing 2-1 at UAB Saturday.
Kentucky stayed on six points, while UAB moved up to seven – two behind Conference USA leader Charlotte, which won against New Mexico this weekend.
The goals
UAB’s Henrique Sposito scored both of UAB’s goals. He opened the scoring nine minutes in as UK failed to clear a UAB attack, and the ball fell to Sposito on the left side of the box where his shot was deflected on frame, wrong-footing UK goalkeeper Stuart Ford.
Eleven minutes later UAB’s Eder Mora whipped a cross into the box from the right flank finding Phillip Makinde who missed the target with his header. The ball fell to Sposito again and this time he found the back of the net cleanly.
Kentucky responded nicely for the balance of the first half, but lacked finishing touch as they neared goal. The Wildcats looked better going forward in the second half, but were unable to find the back of the net until the 66th minute.
Noah Hutchins released Charlie Reymann along the left. He dribbled to the corner of the box, and put a cross into the mixer that Charlotte was unable to deal with as their attempted clearance was hit into the left upper 90.
The notes
Kentucky’s five-match unbeaten run ended.
The Wildcats have a 2016 record of won 7, lost 3, drew 2 (2-2-0 Conference USA).
UAB improved to 6-3-3 (2-1-1 C-USA).
The Wildcats are 0-2 in C-USA road matches, and 2-0 at home in the league.
Charlie Reymann has the team lead with six assists.
Kentucky is 7-6 against UAB all-time, as the Blazers broke UK’s two-match winning streak in the series.
The quote
“It’s a disappointing result on the road, but at the same time every game in our league is tough – especially on the road – and we have to give a lot of credit to UAB,” UK head coach Johan Cedergren said. “Still I think we can do better in the first half. To give up two goals is disappointing, but I think we rallied. We were good in the second half, but in the end when you give up two early goals – just like we did at FIU – it’s really hard to climb out of that hole.
“We’d hoped that we learned from that experience a couple weeks ago in Miami, but I think we were a little sluggish to start. Now we have a whole week to prepare for the next conference game. We’ll get a couple of guys healthy and go from there. It’s not the end of the world to lose, however we could’ve started with more energy.”
UK Soccer in C-USA
Kentucky plays in C-USA in men’s soccer only. The Southeastern Conference does not offer men’s soccer as a sport. South Carolina is the only other SEC university that has a varsity men’s soccer team. The Gamecocks are also in C-USA.
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by Jake Most