This past Saturday the SMU men’s soccer team continued their winning ways as they won their second straight Conference-USA defeating the University of Central Florida Saturday 2-0 in Orlando.
In the game, the Mustangs saw the return of forward Paulo da Silva who had missed an extended stretch of games due to an injury. da Silva made his presence known in his first game back as he scored both of the goals for the Mustangs.
The scoring got started when da Silva put a free kick past the UCF goalkeeper in the 52nd minute of the game. The goal put da Silva back into the lead for goals for the team, a title that he was tied for with freshman Diogo de Almedia.
The second goal of the night came just two minutes later when da Silva buried a cross from Gabe Arredondo and de Almedia in the 54th minute.
While the offense was busy creating chances, the defense was having a good game of their own. Goalkeeper Craig Hill made eight saves in the game while the Mustang defense only allowed 14 shots the whole game.
For his play over this past week that included two shutouts, Hill was named the Conference-USA defensive player of the week. Hill made 13 saves over the two game stretches while allowing no goals.
This season Hill has allowed just 13 goals, earning a .80 goals against average and has six shutouts. The defense in front of him, led by captain Daniel Lopez, has also been stellar this year allowing just 69 shots on goal in 15 games.
The Mustang offense has also picked up in the past week as they have scored a combined 4 goals in two games. The Mustang offense had been struggling in recent weeks.
With the win SMU moves back into good position to make the conference tournament. There were questions just a week ago about whether the Mustangs could make it out of their funk and into the conference tournament. Two consecutive wins though have alleviated those doubts.
With the win the Mustangs improve to 9-4-2 overall and 2-3-1 in Conference-USA.
SMU will now get a week’s rest before they take to the pitch again when they face conference foe, Kentucky. That game will get started at 12 p.m. on Sunday and will be televised nationally on CBS College Sports and can be heard on the SMU campus radio station at www.kpni.info/soccer.
