Still Perfect, Moccasins Score Three Late Goals for 3-1 Win Over Thomas

THOMASVILLE, GA â€" It took a while for Florida Southern’s offense to get going on Friday, but until it did, the defensive play of J.D. Ruiz gave them that chance. In the end, the Moccasins responded with three goals in the final 15 minutes, two of them by Givi Kokaia, to take a 3-1 victory over Thomas University.

The Mocs’ second straight come-from-behind win gives them a 4-0 start for the first time in 13 years. The 1997 Moccasins were the last to open a season with four straight wins and went on to win their first eight.

Despite out-shooting the Night Hawks 16-6, the Moccasins found goals hard to come by until the closing stages of the match. Meanwhile, the Night Hawks managed just two shots in the first half, but one of them was a penalty kick by Alex Fleming that gave them a 1-0 lead 15 minutes into the game. They almost had another goal in the 24th minute, but Johan Jonsson made a leaping save on a rocket from outside the box off the foot of Nathan Would. The senior goalkeeper got just enough of the ball to deflect it off the crossbar, and the Mocs got control of it before the Night Hawks could attempt another shot.

“All season long up to this point, we’ve presented the team with different challenges to prepare them for anything they might face,” said FSC coach Hugh Seyfarth. “Today, even though we fell behind against a quality opponent, we never felt like we were going to lose. Everything at halftime was very positive and we still felt like it was our game to win.”

In the second half, the Mocs got two more big plays from defenders J.D. Ruiz and Ashley Holmes, both of which kept it a 1-0 game. The first of those came from Ruiz in the 53rd minute after Shelby Gillis of Thomas broke through an attempted tackle and got the ball to Bradley Tuggle down the left flank. Tuggle was able to dribble around Jonsson inside the box and take a shot into what appeared to be an open net, but Ruiz came streaking across the field from the backside of the play and stopped it on the line.

Later, in the 58th minute, Tuggle got loose down the right side of the field and sent a menacing pass into the center of the box where at least one Thomas player was open for a shot. Instead, Holmes stepped in front of it to clear the ball out of danger. Combined with the game-changing play by Ruiz, it helped the Mocs settle down a bit before going on their scoring run a few minutes later.

“That was an exceptional effort by the back four today,” said Seyfarth. “Those guys really stepped up their game and kept us in it.”

Kokaia got the equalizer for Florida Southern in the 75th minute off a brilliant feed from Zach Hofstetter, who somehow kept the ball inbounds on the end line. Kokaia planted the curling pass into the net from inside the six-yard box for his fourth goal of the year. Four minutes after that, the same two players connected for a second time, with Kokaia on the other end of a long pass down the center of the field and looping it on the run over the charging Night Hawk goalkeeper.

Viktor Bakkioui then clinched the outcome for Florida Southern with a goal in the 87th minute, set up by outside midfielder Adam Hansjons, who had worked free in the left corner. It was Bakkioui’s third goal in the first four games of his career.

“Givi showed outstanding leadership today,” said Seyfarth. “He picked us up and carried us on his back when the game was on the line.”

In reality, the onslaught by Florida Southern started a little bit earlier, and it was those scoring chances that seemed to ignite the offense, even though a goal wasn’t scored until a bit later. In the 68th minute, Kokaia rang the post on a free kick, and the follow-up by Brad Hunt went too high. Then, in the 74th minute, Hofstetter set up Jovaughn Howard for a 1-on-1 opportunity, but Andi Hoffer came out of the goal to break it up for one of his five saves.

Jonsson made two saves for the Moccasins, who gave up only six shots. He’s allowed just two goals through the first four games, one of them the penalty kick by Thomas on Friday.

Florida Southern will play the University of West Florida in its next game Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. central time.