WINTER PARK, Fla. - The Florida Southern College men's soccer team wrapped up the 2023 season with a 5-1 loss at Rollins College.
The Moccassins (5-6-6, 3-3-4 SSC) fell to the Tars (9-4-3, 5-4-1) in the quarterfinal of the Sunshine State Conference tournament to end the season. Rollins will advance to the semifinals on Thursday with the win facing the 2-seed Florida Tech in Melbourne.
Senior forward
Kyle Carr got the game started in the fourth minute of action with a shot that went just left of the goal post, putting a shot on the board first. The Tars took their momentum from the wide shot and turned it around in their favor scoring early at the 5:26 mark to take a 1-0 lead.
With FSC playing on an unfamiliar turf field, they continued to try to put pressure on the Rollins squad with back-to-back shots first from sophomore defender
Ruben Linden and quickly after from junior midfielder
Jay Skelcher-Maxwell. Skelcher-Maxwell's shot went bottom left where the Tars' keeper Maximillian Obermeier was waiting.
The shot on goal from FSC was in the 12th minute, and Rollins turned the pressure back on the Mocs defense with two shots of their own. Both shots from the Tars were in the 17th minute as Patrick Horan shot was saved by the team at 16:04, and Mocs' senior keeper
AJ Pearce saved the second shot at 16:22.
The Tars second goal came just after an offside call, which turned in their favor for a 2-0 lead going into halftime.
Rollins came out of the half with the same momentum scoring their third goal of the night at 57:12. In the 62nd minute, the Tars added an insurance goal to make it 4-0 to make up for the shutout the Mocs had against them earlier in the season.
Carr entered with fresh legs and answered back with his fourth goal of the season and 11th of his career to cut the lead down to 4-1 after being in just 21 seconds.
With less than a minute remaining, the Tars added a fifth goal to close out the Mocs season.
On the season, the Mocs had 23 goals to average 1.35 goals per game. FSC contributed 162 shots with 77 being on goal. Carr graduates from the men's soccer program leading the way with four goals, and three assists playing every game and earning 11 points. In goal, Pearce has been the Moc between the poles in 11 games with 31 saves in 990 minutes of action.
Mocs ended the 2023 season facing a tough schedule going up against three ranked teams in the top 10 of the coaches' poll not allowing a single goal against ranked opponents.
