PBA Uses PKs for 4-1 Win Over Moccasins

WEST PALM BEACH â€" Playing a man down for most of the match, Florida Southern’s high-scoring offense was finally held in check for the first time this year, but it still took two penalty kicks for Palm Beach Atlantic to secure the win. With Kenny Hogg scoring on both of them, and Kevin Ireland picking up a goal and an assist, the Sailfish pulled away late for a 4-1 victory over the Moccasins.

Florida Southern (4-2) ranked third in the nation with a 4.00 scoring average coming into Tuesday's game, but was held to less than three goals for the first time all season. The Sailfish, meanwhile, earned their win by scoring three times in the second half, including goals in the 64th and 67th minutes after the Moccasins had made it a 2-1 game on a penalty kick by Ashley Holmes.

Palm Beach Atlantic (3-3) had control of the early stages of the game after the Moccasins twice turned the ball over in their own back third, giving the Sailfish two prime scoring chances. Both of them resulted in good shots by Alan Black and Evan Singlar, but Moccasin goalkeeper Andres Guzman was up to the task each time. Holmes broke up another scoring chance with a sliding stop on a cross by Ireland that kept the ball from getting through to Singlar in the middle of the box.

Overall, PBA had four of the first five shots in the game, but didn’t score until the 36th minute when Hogg converted his first penalty kick. He’d earned the opportunity when Guzman was forced to foul him on a break-away, a play that resulted in a red card and left the Mocs a man down.

The Sailfish broke through for their second goal in the 56th minute when Ireland played the ball forward to Tyler Sanders, who struck a bouncing ball in the box just over the hands of goalkeeper Charlie Craig who had come out to challenge him, and just under the crossbar.

“I thought we re-grouped very well after going down a man,” said FSC head coach Hugh Seyfarth. “It can shock any team when that happens, because in a sense you lose two players â€" the starting goalkeeper, and a field player that you have to remove to satisfy the red card. We had three good chances to score right after that but just couldn’t convert. But to give up the second goal before we could score our first really spelled the end with only 10 men on the field.”

The goal by Sanders gave the Salifish a 2-0 lead, but the Moccasins answered five minutes later when a hand ball in the box during a corner kick gave them a penalty kick of their own. Holmes put it home for his sixth goal of the year, and the Mocs were back in the game. However, a second penalty kick goal by Hogg less than two minutes later swung momentum back in favor of PBA, and Ireland notched the final goal for the Sailfish three minutes after that.

Again the Moccasins re-grouped to pressure the PBA goal in the final minutes of the game, but Jonathan Strunk kept them from scoring again with three late saves. Brad Hunt came close on a low liner near the ground, and Mitchell Francois blasted one from just inside the box that Strunk deflected before it bounced off the cross bar and out of danger.

The Mocs ended up with 12 shots in the game compared to 17 for the Sailfish, but they held a 10-5 advantage in corner kicks.

Both Guzman and Craig made two saves for Florida Southern.

“PBA has a good young team and has played some very good competition, but we didn’t show up as a team today,” said Seyfarth. “I’m disappointed we didn’t seem to work as hard as we had in every other game this season. In college soccer, mistakes will happen, but effort can never be a variable. Now we have to regroup and see what type of character we have before we face a very good Lynn team on Saturday.”

Saturday’s game against the Knights kicks off at 7:00 p.m at Barnett Field.