Box Score
SAINT LEO â€" If you missed the first six minutes of Wednesday night’s game between Florida Southern and Saint Leo, you missed most of the game. After an early frenzy that featured three goals before the seats were barely warm, only one goal was scored the rest of the night as Saint Leo held on for a 3-1 win over the Moccasins.
The game started with a barrage of shots, reminiscent of the Mocs’ last trip to Saint Leo in 2007, a game that ended in a 5-4 win by the Lions. This one saw the Lions score two goals in the first four minutes, and the Moccasins respond with one of their own at the 5:45 mark.
The first scoring chance belonged to Florida Southern (1-9, 1-5 Sunshine State Conference) with a corner kick 30 seconds into the match, but the Lions (6-6, 2-3) turned it aside and scored the first goal a little over one minute later. It came off the foot of Leonardo Nogueira, who slipped in behind the FSC defense to take a short pass from Bruce Cutler. Goalkeeper Johan Jonsson had no chance to stop the shot from in close, and the Lions were quickly up 1-0.
Play had barely resumed before Saint Leo was on the run again. After Jonsson made a difficult save at close range on a Jonathan Glenn shot, the rebound was knocked in at the left post by defender Cody Allen.
Right back came Florida Southern, with Matt Macias winning a ball in the back, and sending it forward for a Moccasin attack down the right flank. Saint Leo was able to win possession, but gave it up again under pressure by Jovaughn Howard, who finished the play with a shot from the top of the box that went off the hands of Saint Leo ‘keeper Erik Mozzo.
The scoring stopped there, but the shots kept coming. Saint Leo got off two more right after Howard’s goal, but Jonsson saved both of them to keep it a 2-1 game. The Mocs’ junior goalkeeper later saved a curving knuckle-ball type shot from Cutler, stopped another shot on a break-away by Nogueira, and made a diving save against Michael Panter off a corner kick â€" all in the first half. By halftime, Jonsson already had seven saves and he finished the game with 10 to match the highest total of his career.
Jonsson also got help from much of his defense. Billy Locy made a big tackle to stop another break-away by Nogueira in the 20th minute, Sebastian Bergh blocked a shot at the top of the box in the 30th, and Macias did the same in the 45th.
The second half also started with scoring chances by both teams, and again it was Saint Leo that scored. After Mozzo made a diving save against Jared Bellingar, the Lions responded at the other end with a bizarre goal by Glenn at the 49:20 mark. Cutler sent a long serve into the box for the Lions’ leading scorer and Jonsson came off his line to punch the ball away. It ended up bouncing off Glenn’s head and rolled toward the open net before Glenn tracked it down to tap it in the net for his eighth goal of the season.
Saint Leo did not score again after that and the Mocs had just two more shots, with both coming in the 81st minute. Brad Hunt did a nice bit of dribbling to get off a clean shot inside the box where it was saved by Mozzo, and the Mocs recovered the loose ball to set up another chance. This one resulted in a header by Daniel Pulse that was also saved.
The Lions then ran out the rest of the game to collect their third straight win.
Florida Southern will be on the road again this weekend when it travels to West Palm Beach for a make-up game with Palm Beach Atlantic. Saturday’s game begins at 2:00 p.m.
