Gamecocks fall just short against No. 7 Kentucky, 2-1
Senior Bjorn Gudjonsson scored his 11th career goal in the 43rd minute.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina (2-6-0, 0-3-0 C-USA) dropped a back-and-forth decision, 2-1, against No. 7 Kentucky (8-0-1, 3-0-0 C-USA) on Saturday night at Stone Stadium. The Gamecocks led 1-0 on a late first half goal by senior Bjorn Gudjonsson at halftime, but a second half surge propelled the Wildcats to the hard-fought road victory.
“This was a tough loss for our team tonight,” said head coach Mark Berson. “We created several good chances to put the game away, but we were unable to do so. Give Kentucky credit, they were able to stick their chances and that was the difference in the match. Our preparation this week was very good. I want to give our guys credit – they have been working hard to improve. However, our execution needs to be better both in critical defending and attacking situations. We have a quick turnaround before we go to play another top-ranked team in Virginia Tech on Tuesday.”
Carolina came out aggressive and had a great chance to put points on the board in the first minute of the match. Junior Tucker Monheimer pinpointed a transition pass to a junior Luca Mayr just outside the six, but Mayr mishit his shot and it flew wide. Monheimer would score a goal minutes later that was waived off for offisdes.
In the 26th minute, Mayr bended a cross right in front of the goal and sophomore Justin Sukow got a touch on it, but Enrique Facusse, who leads the nation with seven shutouts, was there for the save. Sophomore Frano Buhoavc corralled the rebound right away and fired a close-range shot that was also saved by Facusse.
In the 43rd minute, Carolina capitalized on another quality chance has Sukow laced a cross into the six to Gudjonsson. He laid out and headed it in near post to give Carolina a 1-0 lead. It marked the first goal of the season for Gudjonsson and the 11th of his career. He sat out all of 2017 with a hip injury.
Gudjonsson’s goal was just the third goal allowed by the Wildcats so far in the 2018 season.
Both teams exchanged blows in the second half, but UK finally broke through with the equalizer in the 67th minute after scoring off a blocked shot. The Wildcats scored the eventual game-winner in the 82nd minute on a free kick from just outside the 18.
Carolina had a great chance to tie the score in the 85th minute when sophomore Mitchell Myers sent a perfect long ball from the backline up to Gudjonsson, who was making a run downfield 1v1 with a Wildcat defender. Facusse came off his line to disrupt the chance and collided with a teammate interrupting the play. Both players went down immediately and the match was stopped briefly for injury time.
Sophomore Justin Bauer, who made his second career start tonight, finished the game with four saves.
It was a physical game, with 30 combined fouls between the two teams.
The Gamecocks hit the road to take on No. 21 Virginia Tech (6-2-2, 1-2-1 ACC) on Tuesday in Blacksburg with coverage provided by the ACC Digital Network.
