LAKELAND â€" It didn’t take the Moccasins long to start shooting Wednesday night, nor did it take them long to start scoring either. Forty seconds to be exact, and that was just the start. Scoring three goals in the first 3½ minutes, Florida Southern went on to a 5-0 win over Flagler in its highest scoring game of the season.
The Moccasins (6-5) also picked up their third shutout in the last four games, but this one was all about the offense â€" even if two of the early goals were scored by defenders, and another was assisted by one. The blitz started when the Mocs won the ball in their defensive third shortly after the opening kickoff. Lexie Bottomley got the ball forward to Morgan Sammons, who crossed it out of the right corner for Princess Haley in the middle of the box. When Haley’s shot landed in the net, only 40 seconds had elapsed, the first time the Mocs had ever scored in the first minute of a game.
They almost did it again.
The Mocs scored their second goal at the 1:08 mark when Renee Heacock headed in a corner kick from Alex Hoover for the second fastest goal in team history. It also set a record for the shortest time between two Moccasin goals, breaking the previous mark of 34 seconds set by Noreen Drenthe and Valerie Krajcsik against Embry-Riddle in 1998.
Another corner kick by Hoover gave the Mocs their third goal at 3:24, this one by center back Ashlie Haas. A little over three minutes into the game, the Mocs had taken three shots and were up 3-0.
The pace slowed a bit after that, but Florida Southern scored again in the 37th minute when help from Flagler. Just as they did on their first goal, the Mocs brought the ball down the right flank with Bottomley and Sammons doing the work. Sammons had the ball in the box and appeared to be sending it across for Hanna Jansson, but a Flagler defender stepped in between and kicked the ball in the net for an own goal. That sent the Mocs into halftime with a 4-0 lead.
They made it 5-0 in the 61st minute when Kerri-Ann Brown sliced through the Flagler defense and fired a shot inside the left post for her team-leading sixth goal of the season.
The Moccasins out-shot the Saints 18-5, and Flagler goalkeeper Christie Reuther was forced into 10 saves. Most of those came in the second half, and two of them came within seconds of each other as she stopped a header by Jansson and a follow-up attempt by Katie Naumec in the 87th minute. She also denied Haas another goal off a corner kick.
Martina Tangen Billing made three saves for Florida Southern in picking up her fifth shutout of the year. Most of Flagler’s chances came early, with Haley clearing a dangerous corner kick in the seventh minute, and a shot by Hannah Harvell going a little too high in the 20th.
The 5-0 score also allowed Florida Southern to get some good work from several reserves later in the game, including Anna Ott. The junior midfielder won a number of balls in the final 30 minutes to provide the Mocs with several other scoring chances.
Florida Southern returns to Sunshine State Conference play on Saturday when it hosts Barry University at 7:30 p.m.
