LAKELAND, FLA. - The Florida Southern College men's soccer team honored the 2023 senior class by battling against No. 7th Florida Tech, earning a 0-0 draw to advance into the Sunshine State Conference tournament.
Before the beginning of the competition, the FSC coaching staff and players honored six departing veterans:
Kristoffer Risnes, Jay Skelcher-Maxwell, Kyle Carr, Victor Beker, AJ Pearce, and
Nick Dittmer.
After the senior ceremony, the Moccasins (5-5-6, 3-3-4 SSC) got to business knowing what was at stake, as sophomore defender
Ruben Linden attacked first with a shot on goal at 0:53 that was saved by the Panthers (10-1-4, 7-1-2 SSC) keeper Iker Bastida going right into his gloves.
The momentum turned a little bit as Florida Tech put a shot up, followed by junior defender
Mathias Kjolner with a shot just right of the goal post. After Kjolner's shot at the 21:14 mark, the Mocs had to hold the Panthers. Florida Tech's offense attacked with back-to-back shots that were saved by keeper Pearce coming in at 31:45 and 31:57.
Junior midfielder
Felix Tonne let a shot fire with just under six minutes remaining in the first half, but the shot went just left. The Panthers Ettore Casadei answered back to Tonne's shot at the 41:36 mark sending Pearce into the air for the save.
The second half opened up similar to the first, with a lot of back-and-forth action as Kjolner sent a shot flying into the hands of Tech's keeper in the bottom right corner. Freshman midfielder
Matthew Male had the Mocs final shot on goal as Bastida was waiting and the shot went right into the knee for a save.
The final shot from the Panthers was right into the hands of Pearce as the clock dwindled down to 85:22. The Mocs earned a draw against the ranked Panthers, allowing them to advance to face Rollins in the quarterfinal.
Florida Southern will head to Winter Park on Monday, Nov. 6 where they will play the No.3-seed Rollins. Kick-off will be announced on the fscmocs.com website.
