Men’s Soccer Flies by UMKC in Conference Opener

Kansas City, Mo. - The 10^th-ranked Air Force Falcons opened the Western Athletic Conference slate with a commanding victory over UMKC (1-6-0. 0-1 WAC), 4-1, on their first Saturday evening matchup of the season. The win marks Air Force's eighth-straight and Doug Hill's 100^th-career win since taking the reins in 2007. Air Force improves to 8-1, with a 1-0 mark in the WAC.

The Kangaroos were the first to strike with a goal from a corner kick in the 26^th minute. The Falcons would retaliate with the equalizer four minutes later and never look back. Freshman JT D'Emidio continues to play an effective role in the Falcons' dynamic offense, providing assists for Joe Ortiz in the equalizing goal in the 31^st minute, Austin Dewing's goal for the lead in 40^th minute and Aaron Uribe's in the 56^th minute. The goals marked Ortiz's first career goal and Dewing's sixth of the season. D'Emidio now leads the team with five assists.

Uribe, who was also credited with an assist for his quick touch on Dewing's goal, increased Air Force's lead, 3-1, marking his third goal of the season. Air Force's younger members, Ortiz, Uribe and D'Emidio, accounted for the majority of points registered on the evening (7 of 13).

The Falcons continued to apply pressure on the Roo's defense for the remainder of the match. In the 88^th minute, Klint Parker tossed the ball in where Tucker Bone received from atop the box and took a shot, putting some curvature on the ball's flight-path to the right-side top-shelf for his fifth goal of the season. The 2017 first-team All-American continues to build his case in the MAC Hermann race as he's tallied a point for Air Force in the each of the Falcons' last four contests.

At the final whistle, Air Force dominated the stat sheet, outshooting UMKC, 17-8. Air Force has doubled their opponents in shots five times this season. Dewing and Bone led the squad with four shots apiece. The Falcons' superior defense line made Andrea Seazzu's time in goal a bit easier as the keeper was only tested with two shots on frame. Seazzu improves to 8-1 in the Air Force cage this season.

"I'm pretty happy with the results, it's the way we wanted to open conference play," said Hill. "There's a stat that shows whoever scores first tends to win and we were happy to prove that one wrong tonight. The men showed a lot of character by continuing to play their style of soccer and not letting the deficit get them down. They've done it twice this season and it's a sign of a mature team."

"Overall it was a great team win," Hill continued. "The offense was effective at getting in behind their line, the defense adjusted to their formation on the fly and the bench came in with high energy to maintain our dynamic style of play. Everyone pulled together and did what they had to do to get the win. We're going to get some rest and get ready for the next two at home"

The Falcons will open the conference home-slate with a pair of matches against Incarnate Word and UTRGV, Thurs., Sept. 27 and Sat., Sept. 29, respectively. The match against UIW is slated for a 7 p.m. MT start. It will be the fifth meeting between the teams with Air Force remaining unbeaten in the series. UTRGV and the Falcons will square off for the fourth time at 1 p.m., with Air Force leading the three-game series, 2-0-1.

Footer

The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the u.s air force of non-u.s. government sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. Although the u.s. air force may or may not use these sites as additional distribution channels for department of defense information, it does not exercise editorial control over all of the information that you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this website.