DENVER – Kengo Ohira scored his first of the season, but the [8/12] University of Denver men's soccer team had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Kansas City on Alumni Night Saturday at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.
JACK AND SHEILA WEINBERG HEAD MEN'S SOCCER COACH JAMIE FRANKS:
"It's a frustrating game. Obviously it's never easy when you spot them a goal, and I just thought we were a little bit off tonight. We were a step off, a pass off. We had a lot of good attacking moments and a lot of corners where the ball didn't get delivered. Overall, we created a lot of chances against a hard team to beat, but we have to figure out how to win some of these games."
SIGNIFICANT STATS:
· Denver is now 42-7-8 in Summit League regular season play since joining the league in 2013.
· Kengo Ohira's goal was his first of the season and the 11th of his Pioneer career.
· With the draw, Denver and Kansas City are now third in the Summit League table with four matches to play.
· Denver had a 16-12 edge in shots and a 9-3 advantage in corners. KC had a 7-2 margin in shots on goal.
KEY MOMENTS:
12' Isaac Nehme was the first goalkeeper called into action, diving to his left to pick a ball out of the top corner to keep the match scoreless in the opening quarter hour.
26' Nehme made another big save to keep things scoreless. Despite the even shot total, Kansas City got the first four shots on goal in the match.
41' Jamie Franks first sub of the evening opened the scoring in the Mile High City as Kengo Ohira found the back of the net for the first time in 2022. Eli Mereness played a switch ball to Oje Ofunrein. Ofunrein laid it off to Ohira just inside Denver's own half. After taking several touches down the Denver left, Ohira split two defenders at the top of the box, and out-raced a third to the corner of the six-yard box before roofing his strike into the upper-90 of the far post to put the Pios in-front.
43' Less than two minutes later, Kansas City equalized when a Jason Belloli clearance deflected off the foot of Christian Koffi and into the open net.
Halftime
69' Jake Mecham at the top of box had a good chance to put Denver in-front, but a Kansas City defender deflected it out for a Denver corner.
86' Denver earned a late corner, leading to a Kansas City counter, but Nehme made his fifth save of the night to keep things level.
Fulltime
WHAT'S NEXT:
Denver, which is in a stretch of five-straight Summit League matches to end the regular season, will welcome Southern Indiana to the University of Denver Soccer Stadium on Wednesday at 7 p.m. MT. The match will be broadcast live on Evoca TV.
TICKETS:
Single-game tickets are on sale now for all men's and women's soccer matches for the 2022 season. Click here to purchase today.
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