NORFOLK, VA—ODU senior Sidney Rivera (Hampton, NJ.) scored two second half goals to lead the fourth seeded Monarchs to a 2-1 victory over No. 22 New Mexico (11-6-1), the fifth seed Wednesday night in a conference USA quarterfinal game at the ODU Soccer Complex. The Monarchs will play top seed and fourth-ranked Charlotte 49ers Friday night at 7 p.m.
Scores in the other quarterfinal matches: Seventh seed South Carolina defeated second seed and No. 21 ranked Kentucky, 2-1. No. 21 and third seed UAB defeated Marshall 1-0. UAB and South Carolina will meet Friday at 4:30.
“Thought we played very, very well for the entire 90 minutes, “ said ODU head coach Alan dawson, the nation’s 13th winningest active coach. “The first half we played very sound defensively. The goal they scored in the first half was a very special goal and is about as good as it gets in the college game. I told the guys we needed to turn it up a little in the second half. We got after them and I thought we wore them down a bit. We played with great heart and desire and now we move on to the next round.”
The Lobos, who reached the NCAA national semifinals last year, took a 1-0 lead in the first half when sophomore midfielder Chris Wehan scored on a free kick, his 10th goal of the season.
In the second half, the Monarchs got the equalizer as senior Sidney Rivera got a pass from sophomore Jesse Miralrio (Arlington, TX.) off a cross with a little less than 20 minutes left in the match. Ten minutes later junior Geoffrey Hill (Frisco, TX.) hit Rivera who beat New Mexico’s keeper for the game winner with 5:49 left in the match.
The match was very even statistically with both teams getting 13 shots each and New Mexico having a 5-4 edge in shots on goal. ODU All-Conference sophomore keeper Alex Tiesenhausen (Graz, Austria)came up with four saves tonight. ODU has played seven teams that are still or were ranked in the NSCAA Coaches top 25 this season. New Mexico defeated ODU, 4-0 back on Oct. 25 in New Mexico.
NM 1-0=1
ODU 0-2=2
38:24 NM Chris Wehan
74:19 ODU Sidney Rivera from Jesse Miralrio
84:11 ODU Sidney rivera from Geoffrey Hill
Shots: ODU (13), NM (13)
SOG: ODU(4), NM (5)
Corners: ODU (2), NM (10)
Saves: ODU-Tiesenhausen (4), Beaulieu(2)
Match 1 - (7) South Carolina def. (2) Kentucky, 2-1
A pair of second-half breakaway goals, including one with 13 seconds remaining in regulation, carried No. 7 seed South Carolina (9-9-0) to a 2-1 upset of No. 2 seed Kentucky (10-5-4) in the first match of the Conference USA Men's Soccer Championship.
The Wildcats got on the board first when sophomore midfielder Ryan Creel was taken down in the box in the 31st minute, awarding UK a penalty kick. Junior midfielder Kristoffer Tollefsen converted the chance, sending his shot into the lower right corner of the net for his third goal of the season and a 1-0 Kentucky lead.
South Carolina found the equalizer on the 51st minute following a poor defensive clear by Kentucky. Senior Mahamoudou Kaba took off on a breakaway, beating UK goalkeeper Callum Irving low into the left corner of the goal. The tally was Kaba's fourth of the season.
Sophomore midfielder Koty Millard broke the draw when he netted the game-winner with 13 seconds remaining in regulation. Kaba came down the right flank, sending a quick through pass to break Millard who beat Irving one-on-one. The goal is the second this year for Millard, both of which have been game-clinchers.
Match 2 - (3) UAB def. (6) Marshall, 1-0
UAB (11-6-1) advances to Friday's semifinal following a 1-0 win over Marshall (7-9-3) in the second C-USA quarterfinal match. Blazer sophomore forward Rami Dajani scored the game's lone goal in the 34th minute. Classmate James Nanje Ngoe fed a long pass from the left side to Dajani in the box, who settled the ball and buried it into left side of net from nine yards out. The score was his fifth of the season and third game-winner.
The best chance for the Herd to level the score came with 4:51 remaining in regulation when sophomore midfielder Ryan Forde rifled a shot on frame. UAB goalkeeper Joe Kuzminsky made a diving fingertip-save to his left, pushing the ball just wide to preserve the shutout.