Nov. 1, 2006

TULSA, Okla. - The host Tulsa Golden Hurricane finished day one of the 2006 Conference USA men's soccer championship in convincing fashion with a 5-0 win over UCF. Junior Todd Goddard scored the last two goals for TU, with each score coming from at least 12 yards out at the Hurricane Soccer and Track Stadium on the campus of the University of Tulsa.

Tulsa's younger players got the scoring started in the contest, as the first three goals all came from underclassmen. Sophomore Joe Salem took a heel pass from Eric Defreitas and scored from 10 yards out to begin the night. Next up was freshman Joe Parada, who scored from point blank to make it 2-0 to close out the first half.

After assisting on the first goal to fellow sophomore Salem, Defreitas began the second half scoring when he took an Eric Burkholder pass up the middle and punched it in. Goddard scored his goals in the 62nd and 72nd minutes.

Tulsa head coach Tom McIntosh felt his team did a good job of grabbing momentum early.

"I thought we did a good job of coming together early on," McIntosh said. "In the first half we created maybe seven or eight legit chances and came away with two. I thought the guys really combined well and took care of what they created. Overall we are happy and now we have to focus on Kentucky."

With the win, Tulsa improves to 9-9-0 (5-3-0 C-USA), while UCF finishes its regular season at 6-9-2 (3-3-2 C-USA). TU advances to Friday's second semifinal against second-seeded Kentucky. Match time is slated for 7:30 p.m.