TU Soccer Falls To UAB

Cristian Mata scored for Tulsa's 12th-ranked men's soccer team, but it wasn't enough as the Golden Hurricane dropped a 2-1 decision to fifth-ranked UAB on Saturday night at the Hurricane Soccer and Track Stadium. TU fell to 7-5-1 on the season and 2-3 in Conference USA, while the Blazers moved to 10-2-1 overall and 4-1-1 in the league.

"I thought we started out the game really well and we created a number of chances," Head Coach Tom McIntosh said. "Obviously Cristian scored a great goal. It was a great ball in and a great finish. We were pleased with the start and really controlled a lot of the possession in the first half. In the second half we lost a little bit of possession in the middle, but they are good with their front four guys and they caused us some difficulty tonight. I thought we played well, combined well and created some decent chances."

Cristian chipped in a goal from 19 yards out off a cross from Byron Knowles-Ramirez with just 11:56 off the clock and neither team found the back of the net in the remainder of the first half.

Rami Dajani evened the score in the 61st minute as he scored from five yards out off a pass from Karl Chester. Over 20 minutes later UAB's Moses Adeniran scored the game-winner from 12 yards out as he punched in a goal from the right side to the left just out of reach of TU goalkeeper Jake McGuire.

Cristian led the Golden Hurricane attack with four shots, three of which were on goal, while Tony Rocha and Akeil Barrett each had two attempts. McGuire logged all 90 minutes in the goal and had five saves.

Tulsa will return to action on Wednesday, Oct. 23rd against Kentucky.