LAKELAND â€" Florida Southern’s comeback on Sunday was nearly one for the ages, and if not for West Florida defender Trey Kramer, it certainly would have been. Down 4-0, the Moccasins scored three unanswered goals and were within inches of a fourth before Kramer made the play of the day to preserve a 4-3 win by the Argonauts.
West Florida (2-2) scored all four of its goals before halftime, including three in the span of two minutes late in the first half. It left the Moccasins (3-1) momentarily stunned until Viktor Bakkioui and David Fletcher worked a give-and-go with less than two minutes to play in the half, resulting in a goal by Bakkioui. Zach Hofstetter nearly gave them another goal with three seconds on the clock, but his blast from just outside the box carried to the left.
That momentum carried into the second half though, when Hofstetter scored in the 56th minute on a rebounded shot by Luke Jenner, and again in the 82nd minute when a mix-up by the Argonaut defense gave him an open shot from 15 yards. It marked Hofstetter’s third consecutive game with two goals, and it gave Florida Southern a chance to pull off what would have been the greatest comeback in team history.
They were denied, however, by Kramer.
Moments after an injury re-start in the 88th minute, the Mocs were on the attack again, working the ball into the center of the field for Gustaf Ytterbom. Open at the top of the box, Ytterbom ripped a shot past West Florida goalkeeper Stuart McCrory, who was too far up to make a play, but the Mocs never had a chance to celebrate. Kramer was on the goal line for the Argos and stopped the shot with his body. When the Mocs tried to play the ball into the box again, it was deflected by another Argonaut defender and the score remained 4-3.
Even then, the Moccasins weren’t quite finished. Hofstetter got another strong shot with 30 seconds remaining, but had it saved by McCrory. A high shot by West Florida’s Matthew Aldred then allowed the Argonauts to run out the clock.
“It was a tale of two halves,†said Florida Southern head coach Hugh Seyfarth. “In the end, we just ran out of time. I can’t say enough though about the effort out there today. To battle back the way we did says a lot about the character of these guys.â€
In truth, the Moccasins may not have needed a comeback of that magnitude if not for the one very bad 2-minute stretch late in the first half. The Argonauts were already ahead 1-0 on a goal by Dillon Gallet at the 7:45 mark when Aldred took advantage of a defensive misplay to give them a 2-0 lead in the 32nd minute. Just 40 seconds after Aldred scored, Andre Verardi gave the Argos another goal, and barely a minute later it was Jason Ream who did the scoring. That gave West Florida four goals on just seven first-half shots.
“We had some self-inflicted mistakes in the first half and a good team like West Florida is going to take advantage of those,†said Seyfarth. “We gave away far too many counter-attacks today and that came back to hurt us badly.â€
The Argonauts ended up out-shooting the Moccasins 17-14, but had a commanding 14-2 advantage in corner kicks. Florida Southern goalkeeper Charlie Craig had a busy day, making eight saves, including a couple late in the game that prevented the Argos from scoring what could have been a back-breaking fifth goal.
While Craig kept the Argonauts off the board in the second half, Seyfarth also praised the play of midfielder Luke Jenner, who made a huge impact on the game after entering late in the first half.
Florida Southern will begin Sunshine State Conference play next Saturday when it travels to St. Petersburg to take on Eckerd College. Kickoff is 7:00 p.m.
