With a record 3,075 fans in attendance for Senior Night, the No. 1 Marshall Men’s Soccer Team continued their impressive season on Saturday, Sept. 23, by shutting out the No. 3 UCF Knights with a score of 1-0.
After the match, Marshall’s head coach, Chris Grassie, commended UCF for their strong performance.
“Fair play to UCF, I thought they played really well tonight,” he said. However, he believed that his team had missed opportunities to secure the victory earlier in the game.
“We should have put the game away earlier. We had a couple of great chances in the second half to put the game away,” Grassie said.
The decisive moment came in the 25th minute when Marshall launched an attack. Pablo Simon raced down the right wing, delivering a cross to Adam Aoumaich at the far post. Aoumaich slipped the ball past UCF’s goalkeeper, securing his fourth goal of the season.
“Pablo and I know each other with that pass,” Aoumaich explained. The seamless connection between Simon and Aoumaich was demonstrated by their chemistry on the field.
In the dying seconds of the match, UCF came close to equalizing; Knights defender Zane Bubb made a tackle from behind on Gabriel Perrotta and swiftly passed the ball to AJ Seals, who had an opportunity to score. However, after a referee meeting and a thorough review, it was deemed that Bubb had committed an illegal tackle by entering the play from an out-of-bounds position, resulting in the nullification of the goal.
Perrotta, the goalkeeper for Marshall, showcased his skill by recording his fourth shutout of the season and making three saves to deny UCF any goals.
