Junior Nik Robson (Bucklands Beach, New Zealand) scored a pair of second half goals to help the No. 11 Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ men’s soccer team rally for a thrilling 2-1 Conference USA victory Saturday evening at the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Soccer Complex. The Knights improved to 9-2-2 overall and 3-1-1 in league play with the win.<\/p>\n
Robson netted the game-winning goal at the 70-minute mark. Senior Spencer Scott (Palm City, Fla.) set up the score with a cross that was handled inside the box by freshman Matthew Gaskins (St. Petersburg, Fla.) before a spinning Robson shot across his body past Tulsa (5-10-0, 1-5-0) goalkeeper Michael Murray.<\/p>\n
Robson, who now has six goals on the year, tied the match in the 65th minute when he scored on a free kick from 20 yards out.<\/p>\n
The win over Tulsa was the first in nine tries for the Knights, who improved to 5-1 at home in 2011 with the victory. The Golden Hurricane grabbed a 1-0 lead seven minutes into the match when a Tulsa header bounced off a Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ defender and was controlled by Quinn Starker, who fired a shot above Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ redshirt freshman goalkeeper Sebastian Evers (Miami, Fla).<\/p>\n
“We knew that this was going to be a tough match,” Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ head coach Bryan Cunningham said. “You can throw their record out. They are one of the best teams in the league. We knew it was going to be a battle. The players were up for it. Going down a goal early never helps, but give our players a lot of credit. We were able to battle back and come out of here with a nice win.”<\/p>\n
The Golden Hurricane threatened to tie the match late, but the Knights clamped down defensively. With just over a minute to play, Murray left his usual position and fired off shot on goal. Evers, who was making his collegiate debut, made a diving save to knock away the surprising shot from his counterpart.<\/p>\n
The contest was the first at home for the Knights since Sept. 28. Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ was slated to host South Carolina on Oct. 8, but the match was postponed due to heavy rains.<\/p>\n
“People were saying, `you guys never play.’ We have not been home in a while, it is nice to be back,” Robson said. “(Conference games) are always tough. The last few minutes are always going to be a battle like that. We have learned our lessons from games where we have let a goal in the last minute, this year and last year. But we don’t do that anymore.”<\/p>\n
The physical contest featured 32 total fouls and four yellow cards.<\/p>\n
Evers totaled six saves in the winning effort. Tulsa recorded 11 shots, while the Knights had nine shots, with seven coming after halftime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Junior Nik Robson (Bucklands Beach, New Zealand) scored a pair of second half goals to help the No. 11 Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ men’s soccer team rally for a thrilling 2-1 Conference USA victory Saturday evening at the Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Soccer Complex. The Knights improved to 9-2-2 overall and 3-1-1 in league play with the win. Robson netted the game-winning goal at the 70-minute…","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":29238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[629,5936,3088,3346,3406,5937,4382],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-29237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bryan-cunningham","tag-matthew-gaskins","tag-mens-soccer","tag-ncaa","tag-nik-robson","tag-sebastian-evers","tag-spencer-scott"],"yoast_head":"\n