HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (JMU Athletics) – Second half goals from redshirt senior Evan Southern and junior Kevin Larsson gave sixth-seeded James Madison the push it needed to knock off third-seeded UCF, 2-1, on Sunday night at Hoops Family Field in the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Soccer Semifinals.

The Dukes snapped a four-match winless streak and improved to 8-4-6 for their seventh straight fall season of eight wins. The Knights took only their second loss in a span of six matches, having now dropped to 7-6-3 on the season.

Larsson paced the offense for JMU with a trio of shots while Southern recorded a goal and an assist, the first match of a goal and an assist for a Duke since Luca Nikolai against Kentucky on Oct. 19. Junior Sebastian Conlon made four saves in a full 90 minutes of work in goal.

Quoting Head Coach Paul Zazenski
“I’m super proud of the guys tonight to get the win and gain some momentum in what is a very challenging Sun Belt tournament. I’m very happy we were able to grind through that and get the result, because it wasn’t always pretty and we gave up a lot of chances, but we held strong and got some big goals from Evan Southern and Kevin Larsson to see out the match.”

How It Happened
• The UCF offense was on the attack early, getting a pair of shots on frame in the third and 28th minutes as it outshot JMU 6-0 in the opening half.
• JMU broke through in the 65th minute as the Dukes had a throw in from redshirt senior Josiah Blanton a little past mid pitch. The throw in went to Southern who fired a shot from the top far corner of the box into the back of the net.
• A quick response came from the Knights, as they found an accurate shot in the 66th minute, but Conlon made the save.
• In the 70th minute, a straight red was called on UCF for denying a goal scoring chance just a few feet in front of the box to put it down to 10 players the rest of the way.
• The Dukes pushed its lead to two on a Larsson’s fifth goal of the season, as the All-Sun Belt Second Teamer found the back of the net off passes from graduate Aidan Melville and Evan Southern.
• UCF got on the board off of Javier Lopez Sanchez’s first career goal, guiding a ball through traffic in the box in the 79th.

Quick Facts
• JMU was outshot 17-9, allowing 16 or more shots for the third match this season but improved its record to 2-0-1 in those matches.
• The neutral win was JMU’s first since knocking off Georgia State in the 2022 Sun Belt Semifinals.
• Head Coach Paul Zazenski moved to 5-2-4 in conference tournaments and 10-6-4 overall in the postseason while at the helm of JMU. In 20 matches, he is the second fastest head coach in program history to win 10 postseason matches behind JMU Hall of Famer Dr. Tom Martin who won his 10th match in his 15th try.

Up Next
The Dukes will take on host Marshall, the second seed in the Sun Belt Championship and eighth ranked side in the country, on Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. at Hoops Family Field.

— JMU Athletics —