Box Score
LAKELAND â€" Rollins College won a share of the 2009 Sunshine State Conference title Thursday night, and Florida Southern showed again why its roster shows such promise for 2010. Scoring first to put the Tars in an early hole, the Moccasins held their own against the #6 team in the country before two second-half goals gave Rollins a 3-1 victory.
The Tars (16-1-1, 7-1) came into Thursday night needing a win to tie Tampa for first place in the SSC standings. That would give them the top seed in next week’s SSC Tournament due to their earlier win over the Spartans, and solidify their top position in the South Region rankings as well. They got their win, but the Moccasins (1-12-1, 1-7) gave them all they could handle and delayed any celebration until the very end.
Just as they did in their previous game against 20th-ranked Lynn, the Mocs got on the board early and forced their opponent to play from behind. Seven minutes into the match, they worked the ball through the midfield with four different players having a say in the resulting goal. That would be five if Jared Bellingar is counted twice. The junior midfielder started the play on the Florida Southern side of the midfield stripe and finished it with his first career goal.
In between, Givi Kokaia, Zach Hofstetter and Brad Hunt all got the ball forward, with Hunt receiving it on the left flank just outside the box. Working it back inside, Hunt fired a shot that was saved by Rollins goalkeeper Aaron Rokeach and deflected toward the right side of the box. Bellingar was there after making a run down the back side of the play and knocked the loose ball into the net for a 1-0 Florida Southern lead.
Both teams had several scoring chances after that and Rollins capitalized on one in the 29th minute to tie the score. Paul DiPalma had just made a tough save on a shot by Dennis Chin with a dangerous ball then cleared by Matt Macias before Rollins got the ball right back. Andreas Mayer, into the game as a substitute not long before, ended up with it on the right wing and sent a shot from that position into the net for his first goal of the season.
The Mocs then had an opportunity to re-take the lead in the 41st minute, but were denied by Rollins defender Jack Clifford. With Hunt and David Fletcher as the instigators, Sebastian Haupt ended up with a shot inside the box and Rokeach out of position. Clifford got in front of the ball, however, blocking it in front of the net to keep the game tied at one, a score that held up until halftime.
Held to just six shots in the first half, Rollins had seven of them in the first 13 minutes of the second, and one of them found its mark. It came in the 51st minute when Nick Sowers attempted to play J.D. Gruenewald with a ball on the end line, but may have pushed it a bit too far. Gruenewald, however, kept it in play and crossed it back into the middle where Adam New connected on a header for a 2-1 Rollins lead.
The Mocs settled down and had two shots created by Daniel Pulse in the 60th minute that gave them a chance to tie the score. An even better opportunity came in the 66th minute on a corner kick that Sebastian Bergh headed over the bar by a scant few centimeters.
It wasn’t long after that when Rollins scored its final goal, with Dennis Chin taking a downfield pass from right back Matt Bauchle before slipping into the box to beat DiPalma one-on-one.
DiPalma finished with four saves for Florida Southern while Rokeach made three for Rollins.
