LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Second-ranked Louisville battled Cornell to a scoreless draw in front of a crowd of 5,749 on Friday night at Dr. Mark and Cindy Lynn Stadium.
The Cardinals (1-0-1) dominated on offense, recording 18 shots to just six for Cornell (0-0-1) but were unable to find the goal through 90 minutes of regulation time and 20 minutes of overtime.
"What [this game] tells us is that we have a lot of work to do," head coach Ken Lolla said. "The effort tonight showed us that we're still lacking some maturity of how we played the game, of how we went about the game. I think that we simply have a lot of growth [to come]. The good news is that we've seen a lot of games like that, going in a direction where you don't get a result, where you draw or sometimes lose.
"[Cornell] battled," he added. "I give them a lot of credit because they stayed in it, made it hard on us. But we simply didn't do enough tonight from the very beginning, which again shows us that we have a ways to go still."
One of Louisville's best chances came in the 10th minute when senior Will Vitalis rocketed a shot from the left side of the goal that was narrowly stopped by the Big Red. Louisville closed the first half with a flurry of chances in front of the goal, none of which put the Cardinals on the board.
The team opened the second half with another flurry of chances, but was once again unable to score. Junior Ricardo Velazco sent a header directly at Cornell goalkeeper Zach Zagorski in the 56th minute, while fellow junior Shane Campbell's shot in the 62nd minute was also saved.
Match Report w/ Interviews & Photos: No. 2 Louisville, Cornell Play to Scoreless Draw http://t.co/bJ0mWFm2mh pic.twitter.com/seni0NTjJc
— UofL Men's Soccer (@UofLmenssoccer) September 6, 2014
The two overtime periods were very similar to the second half, as Louisville was unable to register multiple shots on goal. The Cardinals' best chances came in the second overtime period, starting in the third minute when Velazco's header attempt went just wide of the cage. One minute later, sophomore Romilio Hernandez's shot also went wide of the goal. Velazco recorded two more shots before the end of the match -- one over the crossbar and another directly at Zagorski in goal.
Louisville senior goalkeeper Joachim Ball recorded two saves in goal for his 11th career shutout, while Zagorski made four saves for the Big Red. Louisville has yet to allow a goal this season.
Up next, the No. 2 Cardinals take to the road for the first time in 2014 as they visit Saint Louis on Tuesday at 8 p.m., ET.
