The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
Memphis
UAB Defeats Memphis In Conference Opener, 2-0
9/27/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 27, 2008
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Sophomores Kevin Sawchak and Curtis Ushedo each scored their first career goals to lead the UAB men's soccer team to a 2-0 win over Memphis. The contest marked the Conference USA opener for the Blazers.
"I thought we played very well," UAB head coach Mike Getman said. "For the first time this season we had all of our players available to us. You could tell the difference. I thought our defense did a great job, we played well for 90 minutes and scored on two nice goals. In the end that was the difference."
The Blazers (3-4-2, 1-0 C-USA) wasted no time getting on the board first with Sawchak scoring four minutes into to the contest. The Atlanta, Ga. native drilled a shot from 25 yards out after receiving a pass from Two-Boys Gumede and Michal Mravec. Thanks to the early goal UAB was able to control the flow of play in the first half and took a one goal lead into the locker room.
UAB was able to put the game away with Ushedo's goal at the 70:35 mark. Senior Carlo Schiavoni set the goal up with a cornerkick which found the head of Ushedo who buried the header into the left side of the net for the final goal.
Junior Wes Johnson played the entire 90 minutes in the net for the Blazers to record his first shutout of the season and fifth of his career.
The result marked the first time the Blazers opened conference play with a road victory since a 2-1 win at Marquette in the 2004 campaign.
The Blazers will take on Tulsa at West Campus Field on Saturday Oct. 4, at 7:00 p.m. The match can be followed live on Gametracker by logging onto the UAB athletics website at uabsports.com.
