![]()
When Emil Kumlin scores a goal, it's like watching someone receive the force of blunt force trauma. There's nothing soft about it. But who would know? Prior to Wednesday night's game against Nova Southeastern, the senior defender had never scored in his college career. When he finally did, it happened not once, but twice, and provided the Moccasins with a 2-1 win over the Sharks.
Nicknamed "Viking" by his teammates, the six-foot center back from Sweden hammered home one goal in the first half and one in the second to give the Moccasins (2-6, 1-2 Sunshine State Conference) a 2-0 lead. The Sharks (6-4-1, 0-2) scored with 5:49 remaining to pull within a goal, but fittingly it was Kumlin who ended the game with a defensive play in the final 10 seconds that preserved the win.
"We told the guys in the locker room tonight this was a make-or-break game," said coach Hugh Seyfarth. "We had to get the three points in conference play to get back in it. It wasn't pretty, we were missing a lot of players, but we held on at the end."
The Mocs played just two reserves in the game and were out-shot for only the second time this year. They carried the momentum from their near come-back at Barry on Saturday into Wednesday's match, with the defense holding SSC Player-of-the-Year Romain Onteniente to only one shot, and the offense taking advantage of the opportunities they had - with a little help from a defender of course.
Kumlin's first goal came on a running header, scored off a perfectly served ball by Dennie Townsend. The play came off a free kick at the top left corner of the box after Patrik Dandanell had drawn a foul in the 20th minute. The Mocs set up the play and Townsend's kick found Kumlin near the back post for a 1-0 lead. It was the first career goal in 56 games for the four-year starter, an All-SSC defender in 2006.
"They took what we did in training and applied it. We've been working a lot on free kicks and corner kicks and we got a head on a lot of those tonight."
The score remained that way until the 79th minute when Kumlin struck again, this time on a penalty kick. The play was set up by Garrett Gaa, who had sent a ball into the box where David Fletcher played it. Before Fletcher could find room to shoot, though, he was brought down, giving Florida Southern the 12-yard spot kick. Kumlin ripped it into the upper right corner to make the score 2-0.
Then it was Nova's turn to score on a penalty kick as the Sharks took advantage of a foul on the other end of the field with 5:49 remaining. Craig Heenighan scored it, cutting the gap to 2-1.
The Sharks continued to apply pressure and David Wahlberg found enough space for a shot with just over three minutes to play. His attempted chip from the left side of the box was snared by Johan Jonsson, who made three saves in the game.
The Moccasins were able to run time off after that, with good ball work by Gaa, Fletcher and Sebastian Haupt in the right corner, but the Sharks eventually re-gained possession with less than 20 seconds to play. Pushing quickly up-field, the Sharks attempted to play Aly Hassan with the ball for a final shot, but Kumlin cut him off in the back third, knocking the ball harmlessly out of bounds where it sat as time expired.
Kumlin wasn't the only Moccasin to make a big play on defense. Ashley Holmes blocked a low line drive off the foot of Rich Bodek in the 24th minute and two minutes later midfielder Dan Heaney made a huge stop on the goal line against Aly Hassan. That one came on a shot that got by Jonsson, with Heaney the only thing keeping it from landing in the net.
Heaney later made another stop in the closing seconds of the first half when Bodek attempted a long cross-field pass to Onteniente. The play was again broken up by Heaney before it turned into a shot.
"The whole back line stepped up tonight," said Seyfarth of his defense. "They made a lot of plays for us, Emil Kumlin, Ashley Holmes, Matt Dean and Sebastian Haupt. It's just one game though, and we have to do it again on Saturday at Florida Tech."
Florida Southern and Florida Tech kick off Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
