MELBOURNE â€" Florida Southern’s quest for a Sunshine State Conference championship will have to wait for another day, while Florida Tech’s was infused with new life. Scoring two goals in the first half, and relying on their defense to hold the lead in the second, the Panthers defeated the Moccasins 2-0, allowing Florida Tech and Nova Southeastern to share the SSC regular season title.
The loss dropped Florida Southern (9-5-2, 5-3) to third place in the SSC standings, and gives Nova Southeastern the #1 seed in the upcoming SSC Tournament. Florida Tech (9-5-1, 5-2-1) was able to jump all the way from fifth to second, and will also have a first-round bye along with Nova. Florida Tech also earned a share of the regular season championship when Nova lost to Saint Leo later on Saturday, but the Sharks won the tie-breaker based on their 2-1 overtime win against the Panthers earlier this year.
All of that means Nova will host the SSC semifinals on Friday, November 5, and the championship game on Sunday, November 7. Florida Southern will host a first-round game on Tuesday night at 7:00 against Saint Leo. It will give the Mocs a chance to avenge a 2-0 loss to the Lions suffered on Wednesday.
The Panthers took an early lead Saturday, and despite being out-shot by the Moccasins 14-10, and giving up 10 corner kicks to only one for themselves, they never let it go. It was the third straight win for a team that was only two overtime losses away from an undefeated record in conference play. It’s also a team that two weeks ago wasn’t even in the regional picture, but is now making a push for its third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, something Florida Southern is also looking to achieve.
The Panthers came into this week at #6 in the South Region rankings, and picked up two wins over teams that were also regionally ranked. The Moccasins began the week #1, but have lost to Saint Leo and Florida Tech. Rollins, which was #2, also lost this week, while #3 West Florida hasn’t lost since the second week of the season (to Florida Southern and Rollins) and is now 15-2. It creates an intriguing situation for the SSC Tournament, one the Mocs hoped to avoid with a win on Saturday.
That didn’t happen though, as Florida Tech got first-half goals from Christina Ragona and Casey Lademann for the win. Ragona’s goal came at the 5:47 mark after the Mocs turned the ball over on their own side of the field. Paula Lillsjo came up with the interception for the Panthers, got the ball Chelsea Pushman, who in turn passed to Lademan. She sent the ball on to Ragona, who buried her shot from the top left side of the box for her second goal of the season.
Over the next nine minutes, the Moccasins had four shots and four corner kicks, but couldn’t find a way to break the Florida Tech defense. Rachel Devlin headed two of those corner kicks out of danger, and center back Ann-Marie Helgestad came up with a couple of big stops as well.
Lademann notched her goal in the 37th minute, again after the Panthers forced a turnover on Florida Southern’s side of the field. This time, Karley O’Brien started the scoring play by getting the ball to Megan Stone, who led Lademann with a pass into the box that she turned into her 13th goal of the season.
Lademann had two shots early in the second half before the final 40 minutes turned into a defensive struggle. The Mocs had their chances though. Kara Moore nearly bent two of her corner kicks into the goal, and Princess Haley hit a shot from 30 yards that was inches high. Carlene Harrison also prevented a Florida Southern goal by stopping Haley inside the box before she could take another shot.
Mist Eliasdottir earned the shutout for Florida Tech, her seventh of the season, by making four saves. Martina Tangen Billing made three saves for Florida Southern.
