BACK TO BACK: UCF Men’s Soccer Clinches Share of American Regular Season Title

For the second straight season, the UCF Knights Men’s Soccer team has clinched at least a share of the American Athletic Conference’s regular season championship.

It wasn’t easy, as the Knights needed a late goal by Gianluca Arcangeli (in the 85th minute) to knock off Memphis, 1-0, and raise the trophy for the second straight season at home on Senior Knight:

It’s the first time UCF has won back-to-back regular season conference titles since 2003 and 2004, when they were in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

The celebration afterwards was something to behold:

The Knights are now 12-1-2, 5-0-1 in The American, #6 in the United Soccer Coaches’ poll and #4 in the RPI.

With only one match to go in the season (Sunday at Cincinnati), the Knights now know they will host the American Championship.

UCF has a bye in the first round and will play their first game on Wednesday, November 13th at home against the winner of the 4/5 matchup next Saturday at an as-yet undetermined campus site. The championship match is slated for Saturday, November 16th at UCF as well.

Last season, UCF won the regular season title and hosted the tournament, but lost in the final to SMU on penalty kicks.

We leave you with Coach Scott Calabrese’s post-game interview, or at least, what happened during it: