The SMU men’s soccer team maintained a perfect C-USA record in its final two home games of the season last weekend, as it defeated the University of Central Florida Golden Knights 1-0 Friday night and then shut out Florida International University’s Golden Panthers 4-0 Sunday afternoon.

The wins raise the Mustangs’ record to 8-4-2 on the season, with a perfect 6-0 record in C-USA play. They are in first place in C-USA, with South Carolina and Marshall tied in the second spot.

The team struggled to find the net again Friday night, a season-long trend. But, freshman Paula da Silva scored in the 35th minute off assists from Duke Hashimoto and Scott Corbin to give the Mustangs their only offense of the game.

“We’re creating great opportunities,” Mustang head coach Schellas Hyndman said. “What I keep telling the boys is they need to put all their opportunities on frame. That’s the next step. But the goal we scored tonight I thought was really nice, especially in terms of build up.”

The Golden Knights played a strong game at the center of the field, led by junior midfielder Michael Wong. But, they were unable to translate their speed up front into dangerous chances, being held without a shot on goal in the first half and only registering three for the game.

Forward Kellan Zindel had a very good game, pressuring the UCF defenders for every ball and making his presence felt in midfield. He was second on the team in shots in the game with three, trailing only da Silva’s five.

Still, Zindel was not satisfied with the team’s overall performance, saying, although the Mustangs were clearly the superior team, they should have dominated the game on the scoreboard as well.

“It’s our own fault,” Zindel said. “We just weren’t able to get that last finishing touch at times. It’s not like they were really in the game at any point. We should have destroyed them”

However, the win over UCF may have come with a high price tag, as sophomore goalkeeper Steve Sandbo appeared to injure an ankle with less than a minute left in the game. Sandbo finished out the contest but did not play in Sunday’s game against FIU, where junior Matt Wideman was awarded his first career start.

Wideman earned the Mustangs’ third shutout of the season against the Golden Panthers, making six saves, four of those in the second half.

The outgoing seniors -Hashimoto, Zindel, midfielder David Chun and forward Michael Uremovich – were honored before the game. Hashimoto scored his team-leading sixth goal of the season in the 22nd minute off a centering feed from Bruno Guarda.

Freshman Richard Oliva added the first goal of his career in the 38th minute to round out the first-half scoring on assists from Corbin and da Silva. In the second half, defender Jay Needham and midfielder Chase Wileman scored goals in the 73rd and 76th minute, respectively. Both goals were unassisted.

The loss was FIU’s worst since 2001, when they lost 7-1 to Clemson.

SMU finishes up its 2005 regular season on the road over the next two weekends. The team only has one game next weekend, a matchup at Tulsa that can be seen on the FOX Soccer Channel.