UAB Blazers Win Their ‘Soccer For A Cure’ Classic

The University of Alabama Birmingham is host to a men’s intercollegiate soccer tournament each year that raises money to help children and their families that are fighting cancer.

The “Soccer For A Cure” Classic has raised a lot of money for local families affected by cancer, and the Blazers have also been quite successful on the field, winning nine of the 16 championship.

The latest was a 2-0 victory over the 20th ranked Washington Huskies behind an offense that produced a goal in each half and shut down the visitors.

The win came two days after #29 ranked UAB had played Fairleigh Dickinson University to a 2-2 draw in double overtime to open the tournament.

“Our goal this weekend was to win our first championship of the year and we have accomplished that,” UAB head coach Mike Getman said. “Any time you are playing for any kind of championship, you want your players to step up and I thought that’s exactly what our team did. One of our advantages throughout this season is that we have a lot of guys who can contribute and today was a great example of that.”

UAB senior defender Mladen Lemez was named the Classic’s Most Valuable Player and was joined on the all-tournament team by Reed Matte, Kofi Gyawu and Moses Adeniran.

“As a center back, you don’t have a lot of stats to show, but there is no doubt Mladen was the MVP of this tournament,” Getman said.

“His defensive play was outstanding and I think he controlled how the game was played. He won every head ball and didn’t allow either Washington or Fairleigh Dickinson to get in any kind of rhythm offensively.”

The win left the Blazers with a 4-2-2 record. Included in the wins was a 2-0 victory over Clemson. The two losses were to East Tennessee State (1-0) in two overtimes and to New Mexico (2-0).