UVU Men’s Soccer opens with overtime win

Buxton’s golden goal lifts Wolverines

Brad Curnow | Sports writer | @jojocornrow

Amhert, Mass – – The Utah Valley University Men’s Soccer team opened the regular season with a 1-0 win in overtime against the University of Massachusetts at Rudd Field on Friday afternoon.

It is the first win on the road since the program was started in 2014.  The Wolverines were 0-4-4 in road or neutral site contests just a season ago.

After 99 full minutes of scoreless play, UVU was able to score the game-winning goal off the foot of junior Austin Buxton.  Buxton rebounded a shot by Karson Payton and put the golden goal in the back of the net to end the game and earn the victory.

The Wolverines played with a fierce intensity from the start as they took nine shots in the first half of play compared to just five by the Minutemen.

In the 36th minute of play, UMass brought their best attack with a barrage of shots at the UVU goal with three shots in less than 30 seconds of play.  Even with the attack, the Wolverines’ goal keeper, Collin Partee, stood strong with the defense and picked up the second shutout of his career.

UVU had 22 shots, five of which were on goal, compared to eight for UMass and just one on goal.  UVU also won eight corner kicks.  The aggressive play of the Wolverines led to dominating the ball and drawing multiple fouls from the Minutemen.

UMass accrued the only two bookings in the match when senior Lenoir Sery acquired a yellow and red card within seconds of one another in the 97th minute.  Just three minutes after Sery left the game Buxton scored the winning goal.

The Wolverines are off to a 1-0 start in just their second season of play.  They will look to improve to 2-0 when they face off against UMass Lowell on Sunday in Lowell, Massachusetts at 10 a.m. MT.