Oct. 8, 2004

Box Score

BOCA RATON, FL - Alejandro Gessen's overtime penalty gave the University of Central Florida a 1-0 victory over Florida Atlantic University in Atlantic Sun Conference men's soccer action on Friday evening.

Gessen placed the ball to the left of the diving Anders Granstad, who had spectacularly tipped an earlier penalty from Jon Imran around the post.

"They (UCF) controlled, I would say, 85-90% of the game tonight," said Owls coach Kos Donev after the loss. "They out-hustled and out-muscled us and deserved to get the result in the end."

In a first-half controlled mostly by the Knights, FAU (4-2, 1-1) missed a golden chance to take an early lead when Kristoffer Aarskog's header hit the bar in the first minute.

UCF then blew a chance of their own when Gustavo Alencar's 17th-minute handball gave the Knights a penalty, but Grandstad flung himself to his right and tipped Imran's kick away for a corner.

Grandstad was almost to blame for the game's opening goal midway through the second half as he flapped at a cross from his right before watching as his defenders cleared the ball off the line behind him.

Just under four minutes into the extra period, the Owls failed to clear their own box and a UCF forward fell under a challenge from FAU defender Jeremi Isaacs. Gessen calmly slotted the resulting penalty home to give the Knights the golden goal victory.

The Golden Knights (3-3-2, 2-0) out-shot the Owls 16 to five and had 10 corner kicks to the Owls' two. Ryan McIntosh recorded his second consecutive shutout in his 50th consecutive start for UCF as the Knights won their third game in a row.

NOTES: FAU committed 23 fouls on the night to UCF's 10...Central Florida was the last team to shutout the Owls back on October 12, 2003 (1-0)...the Knights have now won four straight games over the Owls.