Bryan Station alum’s dramatic late goal keeps Kentucky men’s soccer undefeated
After setting a program record with a 14-match unbeaten run to start the 2021 season — followed by a third appearance in four seasons in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 — UK men’s soccer head coach Johan Cedergren wasn’t focused on besting that mark in 2022.
Speaking to the Herald-Leader before the season, Cedergren outlined the philosophy behind UK’s 2022 schedule, one that features a plethora of ranked opponents both in and out of Sun Belt Conference play.
“We want to get to a point where we schedule so tough, that we get prepared for postseason,” Cedergren said, with the context of UK being just one seed too low (No. 9 instead of No. 8) from hosting its Sweet 16 match last season. “So if you do that, every now and then you might end up with a couple more losses than you would prefer, but for us it’s every single week, are we getting better?”
The answer to that all-important question appears to be yes, although the Wildcats have navigated some roadblocks to stay undefeated so far in the 2022 season.
The latest test came Wednesday night in the driving rain and wind at the Wendell and Vickie Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington, where No. 2 Kentucky recovered from a two-goal deficit to record a 2-2 draw against No. 22 Dayton.
Both Kentucky and Dayton are among the six Division I schools still undefeated in men’s soccer play this season (Duke, Portland, Washington and Xavier are the others).
Freshman defender Max Miller — who went to Bryan Station High School in Lexington and played one season of high school soccer for the Defenders — had an outsized impact in the comeback.
He collected an assist on UK’s first goal of the match scored by Enzo Mauriz in the 44th minute, and Miller scored the equalizing goal himself with less than 5 minutes to play in the match.
“The thing that sold (UK) for me was they’ve been by my side the entire recruiting process, they really had faith in me,” Miller told the Herald-Leader in May, just after signing his official letter of intent to play at UK. “It’s just something about representing my hometown which is really important.”
While Cedergren said postgame he was disappointed with his team’s intensity level — particularly at the start of the match as UK allowed two “totally preventable” goals in the opening 39 minutes — he was proud of his players for responding.
“The number one message that I’m going to go in and talk to the guys about is that if you guys want to reach your potential and if you want to go as far as we can go in postseason, we can’t give up two goals like that,” Cedergren said.
While digging out of self-inflicted holes isn’t a recipe for NCAA Tournament success, Wednesday’s late rally from the Cats ensured they will remain near the top of the national rankings.
On Tuesday, Kentucky made history by being ranked No. 2 in the country in the United Soccer Coaches college poll, the highest ranking in program history. The Cats are also No. 1 in the NCAA’s RPI rankings for men’s soccer.
UK, now 8-0-3 (W-L-D) overall, has defeated No. 10 Louisville and No. 21 Lipscomb while recording draws against No. 7 Marshall, No. 20 Tulsa and No. 22 Dayton.
That’s to say nothing of UK’s strong start to life in the Sun Belt Conference, where the Cats are top of the table following a 6-0 destruction of Georgia Southern last Sunday that featured the program’s first hat trick since 2013 (scored by Ben Damge).
A diverse and effective offensive attack has been the main talking point of this Kentucky season.
Through Monday’s matches, Kentucky was fifth in the country in goals per game and senior winger Nick Gutmann was fifth in the country in assists.
Gutmann recorded his eighth assist of the season on Miller’s game-tying goal.
Anyone looking for confirmation of Kentucky’s defensive abilities got an incomplete answer Wednesday night.
Dayton entered the match averaging 22.36 total shots per game and 9.27 shots on goal per game, both NCAA bests.
The Flyers only recorded nine total shots and three shots on goal against the Cats.
But, those numbers were clouded by both the weather conditions and Dayton scoring two early goals, as the Flyers were content to sit back and let the Wildcats dominate possession in the second half.
While the process toward remaining undefeated — and recording another result against a ranked foe — left a lot to be desired for Cedergren, some bare facts still remain impressive.
Dating back to last season, Kentucky has lost just twice in its last 32 matches.
