The men’s soccer team looked to bounce back Friday night against the Antelopes of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona after a tough home loss on senior night last Saturday evening, but came up just short in overtime.
It was very back and forth between the two teams throughout the night. As for the overtime period, the Wolverines fell on a heartbreaking corner kick by GCU’s Jackson Jellah with less than a minute to go, with the final score being 1-2 in favor of the Antelopes. This match was UVU’s first overtime game on the season. Their last overtime match was last season on Oct. 29, 2017, once again at GCU where they fell 2-3 to the Antelopes.
For the rest of the game up until the overtime period, the first 20 minutes of play lacked a lot of action until the first goal was scored at the 23 minute mark by GCU’s Josh Drack. UVU followed that up quickly with a goal of their own in the 26th minute from Blake Frischknecht who was assisted by Alec Felix and Zach Maas. The assist from Maas made that his team-leading fifth assist on the season.
The second half was very stagnate for both the Wolverines and the Antelopes as both had many chances for go-ahead goals. They hit both the crossbar and the posts multiple times but could not break through into the net. It was also a game filled with a lot of yellow, as both teams combined for six yellow cards with five cards coming in the second half.
As for the statistics for this game, they were nearly identical for both teams on the night. For GCU, they had 17 shots total (eight on goal), six saves by the keeper, eight corner kicks and 22 total fouls. And for UVU, they mustered up 15 shots total (seven on goal), six saves by the keeper, seven corner kicks and 21 total fouls.
UVU will be looking for a quick turnaround win as they head to Las Vegas, Nevada to face UNLV on Sunday afternoon. The Wolverines are still in great position in the conference as they get closer to the WAC tournament heading into their final two games of the regular season. This final road trip of the regular season will really test the Wolverines as they push to finish strong and atop the WAC standings.
Photo courtesy of: UVU Athletics
