University of North Florida
#12 UCF
Men’s Soccer Continues Road Swing with Three Matches
9/6/2011 11:09:00 AM | Men's Soccer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida men's soccer team continues its road swing with three matches in five days. The Ospreys begin the week with a road match against in-state foe UCF (Wednesday, Sept. 7 – 7 p.m.) before traveling to North Carolina to take on UNC Greensboro (Friday, Sept. 9 – 7 p.m.) and Elon (Sunday, Sept. 11 – 2 p.m.).
North Florida enters the week with a 1-1-0 record after earning a 1-0 shutout over Longwood on Saturday, Sept. 3, in Farmville, Va. The win was the Ospreys' first win under new head coach Derek Marinatos.
In the match, UNF used a goal in the 88th minute from freshman Mauricio Valderruten to earn the 1-0 victory. Valderruten's match-winner was created mostly of his own accord. After collecting a ball around midfield, the freshman forward set off on a breakaway. When Longwood's goalkeeper came out to challenge Valderruten at the top of the box, he simply poked the ball to the right and dumped it into the goal from just inside the endline for his first career match-winning goal. Freshman goalkeeper Ryan Husted recorded six saves to earn his first career shutout for the Ospreys.
UCF enters the week with a perfect 3-0 record after posting victories against Jacksonville (W, 2-1), UMass (W, 2-0) and Belmont (W, 3-1). The Knights hold a 5-1-0 advantage against the Ospreys in the all-time series, including a 4-0-0 mark in Orlando.
UNC Greensboro heads into the weekend with a 1-1-0 overall record. The Spartans opened the season by edging Duke (W, 3-2) before falling in double overtime to East Tennessee State (L, 1-0). UNCG was slated to play a match against Clemson, but the match was cancelled due to inclement weather in the Clemson area. The meeting between the Ospreys and the Spartans will be the first in school history.
Elon begins the week with a 0-2-1 record on the season. The Phoenix opened the 2011 campaign with a tie against High Point (T, 0-0) before dropping a pair of games in the VCU Tournament to Coastal Carolina (L, 1-2) and VCU (L, 0-4). Elon will play Charlotte on Friday, Sept. 9 before hosting the Ospreys on Sunday. The match is the first in program history between North Florida and Elon.
