ECU Hosts Cincinnati In Pivotal AAC Match

Game 8: Cincinnati (3-4-0, 2-3-0) at East Carolina (2-3-2, 2-1-2)
Date	Saturday, March 27
Time	12:00 p.m. (EDT)
Location	Greenville, N.C. (Johnson Stadium)
Coverage	Live Stats \| Live Video
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUsoc Instagram: @ECUSoc Facebook: @ECUwsoccer

GREENVILLE, N.C. – With a chance to solidify its spot in the AAC top-four, the East Carolina soccer team will host Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon.

"This is going to be a good game on Saturday," said head coach Jason Hamilton. "Both teams have a lot to play for and it is always a battle when we meet. I would expect it to be a physical game by two very good defensive teams."

ECU (2-3-2, 2-1-2) is coming off a dramatic 3-2 overtime win at SMU. The Pirates opened the scoring in the 61st minute through a Carsen Parker penalty kick, but the Mustangs answered four minutes later. An own goal in the 86th minute looked like it spelled disaster for ECU, but Tori Riggs ran onto a Parker pass and scored in the 88th minute to send the game to overtime. The Pirates took the win when Parker scored off a pass from Morgan Dewey just 3:05 into extra time. That gave ECU eight points in conference play, placing the Pirates in third place and four points ahead of fifth-place Temple in the race for the fourth and final spot in the AAC Championship.

"I think both groups will have a lot of confidence coming into the game," Hamilton said. "We both are coming off of good results and know we can each control our own fate down the stretch to make the conference tournament."

After her five point day against the Mustangs, Parker was named the AAC Offensive Player of the Week, becoming the first player in AAC history to be named the league's Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week in the same season. Parker leads the Pirates with seven points on three goals and an assist while Dewey has one goal and two assists. Madie Knaggs is the only other Pirate with multiple goals, having scored twice this season while Riggs has recorded a goal and an assist in the past two games, as well as earning the penalty kick against SMU.

Defensively, Maeve English continues to be one of the best goalkeepers in the conference. She has been named the AAC Goalkeeper of the Week twice this season and has made 22 saves this year. Kim Sanford continues to be a rock in the middle of the East Carolina defense and her 580 minutes played trails only English. Dewey and Maycie McDougal have been stalwarts at the outside back roles, while Addison Salz has stepped into the defense and played 204 combined minutes in the past two games with Parker moving to center forward.

Cincinnati (3-4-0, 2-3-0) has won a pair of games after a 1-4 start. The Bearcats are coming off a 1-0 overtime win over Houston. Kendall Battle scored the game-winner in that contest and she leads Cincinnati with a pair of goals. Along with Battle's two goals, five Bearcats have scored a goal while six have provided an assist. In the goal, Anna Rexford has played every minute this season and has made 21 saves while allowing eight goals.

The last time Cincinnati and ECU met was on Halloween 2019 and the Pirates needed a win to advance to the AAC Championship, but had to settle for a 0-0 draw. That made the all-time series 7-2-2 in favor of Cincinnati, although ECU is 1-0-1 against the Bearcats since Hamilton arrived in Greenville. The last time the two teams met in Greenville was in 2018 and Sanford set up Cashlin Copley for the game's only goal.

"In order for us to be successful, we need to continue the efficiency in front of the goal that we had last weekend," Hamilton added. "I think our chances will be limited so we have to take advantage of the ones that we get."

Kickoff is scheduled for 12 noon on Saturday afternoon and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+. All fans planning on attending the game can find ECU's current attendance policies here.

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Players Mentioned

Cashlin Copley

Morgan Dewey

Maeve English

Madie Knaggs

Maycie McDougal

Carsen Parker

Tori Riggs

Addison Salz

Kim Sanford

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