LAKELAND â€" Free kicks were not kind to the Florida Southern Moccasins on Saturday against the Barry Buccaneers. Neither were the bounces. With the Bucs scoring once in the first half on a ball off the goalpost, and twice in the second half on free kicks, Barry went on to defeat Florida Southern 3-0, with goals scored by three different players.
The Buccaneers (6-4-1, 2-2) put heavy pressure on the Moccasins (1-7, 1-3)  right away, taking three strong shots in the first 2½ minutes. None of them found the mark though, as Paul DiPalma made two tough saves against Mark Anderson and Kendall Sealy, and another shot by Sascha Koettig sailed wide. Billy Locy and Ryan Arndt also broke up scoring chances in the opening minutes, and Arndt in particular continued to do so for the entire game.
The Mocs appeared to find their stride after that, following Barry’s early chances with a couple of their own. A header by Sebastian Abrahamsson on a corner kick was saved by Johnny Rodrigues in the fifth minute, and a shot by Aleksander Ratkovic in the eighth minute was wide by less than a foot.
DiPalma came up with four more saves in fairly short order after that, but an unfortunate bounce in the 23rd minute resulted in Barry’s first goal. Koettig received the ball on the right side of the box off a serve from left back Andres Perez, and got off a shot from close range that clanged off the near post. As the ball bounced back across the goal, Sealy collected it in front of an empty net and put the Buccaneers on the board.
Later in the first half, the Moccasins had a chance to tie the game after the Bucs were whistled for a foul just outside the box. Zach Hofstetter took the kick for Florida Southern and blasted it off the defensive wall, but it slipped through anyway where Jovaughn Howard found himself alone against Barry goalkeeper Johnny Rodrigues. Shooting from just six yards out, Howard looked to have a certain goal, but Rodrigues made a spectacular save, the ball deflected off the crossbar, and the Bucs cleared it out of danger.
Florida Southern held Barry to just one shot in the first 30 minutes of the second half, but the Bucs turned it into a goal. It came less than three minutes into the half when Mark Anderson slid a direct free kick from over 25 yards inside the near post for a 2-0 Barry lead.
Eventually, the Bucs used another free kick to score their final goal, this one a header by Mark Kilpatrick off a long cross out of the right corner by Ryan Alexander.
DiPalma later stopped Alvaro Yusty on a break-away in the 83rd minute to keep the score 3-0 and finish with a season-high nine saves.
Rodrigues had five saves for Barry, two of them in the final five minutes when the Mocs threatened with shots by Ratkovic and Givi Kokaia. The shot by Kokaia nearly resulted in a goal when Rodrigues was only able to deflect the ball, but the Mocs were called for offside before Howard could poke it into the net.
Florida Southern returns to the field on Friday, October 9, when it goes on the road to face defending South Region champion University of Tampa. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
