BOCA RATON â€" Ten days after their last game, the 15th-ranked Florida Southern Moccasins showed no ill effects from their unscheduled layoff. Neither did Kerri-Ann Brown, who scored two goals on Friday to help Florida Southern defeat Lynn 3-1.
Brown’s two goals were timely ones. She scored late in the first half to give the Mocs a 1-0 lead, and late in the second after the Knights had scored to make it a 2-1 game with less than five minutes to play. The senior forward has now tallied three goals in the last two games, both of them against regionally ranked conference opponents. In between those games against Tampa and Lynn, Florida Southern (7-3-2, 3-1 Sunshine State Conference) had a scheduled match with Flagler cancelled, leading to the long break between games.
The shots came quickly in the opening minutes of the match, with each goalkeeper making two saves in the first nine minutes. The first test for Martina Tangen Billing came in the second minute when Melissa Ortiz launched one from 30 yards, and Kelsey Butler was challenged a few seconds later when Kristen Vollmer took one from almost the same distance. Vollmer’s was the more threatening of the two, with Butler having to go high to tip the ball over the crossbar.
In the fifth minute, Tangen Billing was up to the task again when she made a diving save on a direct free kick by Ortiz, and Butler again answered not long after by stopping a header by Princess Haley. That too was a close call after a perfect serve by Emily Griffith gave Haley the opportunity inside the 6-yard box at the far post. It was a sign of things to come for Griffith, who worked the Knights over several times, and eventually helped the Moccasins hold a 12-4 shot advantage at the break.
Brown had four of those shots and nearly scored on two different occasions before putting her last attempt of the first half in the net. One of them was a header off a service from Lexie Bottomley that looked to be on target, but struck either the foot of a Lynn defender or Haley’s foot before it could find its target. She eventually got her first goal by winning a scramble in front of the net and putting home a second-chance shot in the 40th minute. That was set up by a corner kick from Kara Moore.
The Moccasins had a chance to go up 2-0 in the 62nd minute when a passing sequence involving Bottomley, Alyssa Abrahamsen and Haley ended with Haley being fouled inside the box for a penalty kick. Butler saved it, however, keeping it a 1-0 game.
Haley would get her goal though when she took a downfield pass from Vollmer and beat Butler one-on-one in the 79th minute. That made it 2-0, but the game was far from over.
Lynn (4-5-2, 1-4) was able to dent the scoreboard with 4:29 remaining when Reanne Thomas scored in similar fashion to Brown’s first goal. A corner kick started the play, and Thomas was able to land a shot after the ball had bounced around inside the box while the Moccasins tried to clear it.
That gave the Knights new life, but Brown quickly took it away when she scored her clinching goal in the 87th minute. It was assisted by Griffith, capping a strong performance by the junior midfielder against the Knights.
Florida Southern ended up out-shooting Lynn 18-13 in the match, with Tangen Billing making five saves and Butler making seven.
“I’m proud of the whole defensive effort today,†said FSC coach Ben Strawbridge. “We stood up very well against an extremely talented player in Melissa Ortiz, one of the best in the conference, and out of that, the defense was able to create an attack for us. Lynn is a very young team (no seniors and only one junior) and they showed today why they’re going to be a dangerous team in the next couple of years.â€
Florida Southern will remain in south Florida for its next match, facing Barry University on Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
