Box Score LAKELAND – Florida Southern came back from a two-goal deficit to keep its playoff aspirations alive with a 2-2 double-overtime tie against Tampa.
This was the first time since 2004 that the Moccasins have come back from two or more goals and earned either a win or a tie. On September 24, that year, FSC came back from a 2-0 deficit against Nyack for the 3-2 overtime victory.
While Tampa (7-4-2, 1-3-1 Sunshine State Conference) scored the lone goal of the first half off the foot of Nikolai Hammer in the 18th minute, Florida Southern (4-5-3, 0-3-2 Sunshine State Conference) outplayed the Spartans and had more chances offensively. Four minutes into the game, freshman Jimmy Oatman (El Paz, Bolivia) hit a volley from the top of the box that sailed over the crossbar. Throughout the rest of the half, the Moccasins challenged freshman goalkeeper Zak Downes into making five saves in the half as they outshot UT 11-3. Sophomore Alek Cosio (Fort Worth, Texas) kept the deficit at 1-0 going into halftime after using his head to knock the ball off the crossbar before making the clearance in the 40th minute.
The Moccasins never lost their fight for the entire game, although a penalty shot for UT in the 64th minute would complicate things for them.
Forward Nico Guevara (Weston, Fla.) would finally reap the rewards of his team's constant pressure with his first career goal in the 70th minute after receiving a pass through the middle from sophomore Edward Spansk (Mora, Sweden). The Mocs would keep up the pressure, but the Spartan defense seemed to do just enough to prevent any shots. That is until the 85th minute, anyways, when Oatman sent a missile into the upper left corner of the goal from 40-yards out to tie the game.
Both overtime periods were dominated by the Moccasins as they continued to outshoot Tampa 6-0 in the extra time. Two of those chances came from junior Alexi Cortez (Largo, Fla.) in the first overtime, and another in the second. The best chance of the first OT period, however, came when Guevara dished the ball off to sophomore Jonathan Radvogin (Vasteras, Sweden) who lost control of the ball heading to goal in the 95th minute.
In the 109th minute, Oatman nearly became the hero. With chaos ensuing in the Tampa zone, Radvogin fed the ball to Oatman at the top of the box, who finessed the ball inches wide of the right post.
Florida Southern travels to Melbourne on Saturday for a 7 p.m. kickoff with Florida Tech.
