Men's soccer suffers first loss of year

[PonyPride]

From SMUMustangs.com:

SMU Falls To UCF 2-1
Suffers First Loss Of Season

Oct. 2, 2010

Box Score vs. UCF

ORLANDO (SMU) - The SMU men's soccer team was defeated 2-1 by Central Florida Saturday night. Josue Soto tallied the lone Mustang goal. With the loss, SMU moves to 9-1-0 on the season and 1-1-0 in Conference USA action.

"Today we didn't play to our potential," said head coach Tim McClements. "We're obviously very disappointed. We've been on the road a long time, and we've played a lot of away games. It's something that you have to deal with. But tonight just wasn't our best; we didn't perform at the level that we thought we could. Central Florida was a good team. They played well and they played hard. We've got to put this loss behind us."

Soto netted his goal in the 27th minute when he received a pass from freshman Robbie Derschang just inside the 18. The goal was Soto's third goal of the season. The assist was Derschang's first helper of the year. He is tied for second on the team with four goals.

The game was a hard-fought, very physical battle. UCF committed 20 fouls on the evening and picked up six yellow cards, the most of any opponent in an SMU game.

"We said to the guys after the game that losing is bound to happen," said McClements. "Not many people go undefeated. It's something we have to learn from and move on. We feel we have a lot more to offer. Starting 9-0 is great, but you've got to learn how to take a loss we well. We can turn this in to a positive."

SMU returns home to host C-USA foe South Carolina Oct. 6, for the Mustangs' first home match in a month. Purchase your tickets online at smumustangs.com or call 214-SMU-GAME.

[smusoccer]

Hopefully we can bounce back on Wednesday night. It will interesting to see how we will respond to our first loss and returning home for the first time in a month. I am looking forward to seeing the game.