#4 Mocs Advance to SSC Championship, Defeat #8 Tars in Semifinals Thursday

LAKELAND, Fla. – The No. 4 Florida Southern Moccasins defeated the No. 8 Rollins Tars in the 2023 Sunshine State Conference semifinals Thursday night at Berend Field, 15-13. The two teams had to endure a four-hour contest that lapsed an hour and 45-minute lightning delay.
 
Florida Southern (16-2) was up 14-11 thanks to a Jackie Stoller free position goal with 4:38 to play in the fourth before lightning caused the delay. The teams resumed play shortly after 6:00 p.m. where the Moccasins tacked on another goal, 15-11, before Rollins (15-3) scored two unanswered goals to make it 15-13, with 13 seconds left. Florida Southern won the ensuing draw control and ran out the clock as the final horn sounded.
 
Madison Tare was the game's leading scorer with six goals on eight shots while Jackie Stoller tied for the game-high six points on three goals and three assists. Hailey Daleo tallied with a pair of goals, including the Mocs' 15^th goal, while Lizzy Lynch, Emma Dudley, Giana Murphy, and Sammy Gorrasi each found the back of the net.
 
Sydney O'Neill earned her fifth win of the season playing the full 60 minutes in goal with nine saves, including multiple on free position shots late in the game to hold the Tars off the board.
 
Rollins saw two players tally three goals each in Abigail Cawley and Caroline Gastonguay, while the two players also had two assists each to tie for the team lead in points at five. Claire Barber suffered her third loss of the season while making 12 saves on the night.
 
The Tars struck first thanks to a Gastonguay connection of Caroline to Charlotte, before Lizzy Lynch found Hailey Daleo for the equalizer. Caroline Gastonguay scored her first goal of the game before back-to-back Madison Tare goals allowed the Mocs to capture a 3-2 lead.
 
Rollins closed the quarter with a goal at 2:07 and the two teams headed to the break all knotted up at 3-3.
 
Sammy Gorrasi pushed Florida Southern ahead to open the second followed by another Caroline Gastonguay goal for the Tars to tie it back at 4's. Lynch and Emma Dudley each punched one in as the Mocs reclaimed a lead, 6-4 the largest at the time.
 
The Tars would close the half, outscoring the Mocs 2-1 but it would be Florida Southern who held a 7-6 advantage at the halftime break.
 
Tare would come out firing and score on back-to-back attempts to make it 9-6 but the Tars used a momentum shift and scored three straight to tie it at 9-9 with 2:37 in the third.
 
Stoller would score her 55^th goal of the year with a minute to play before opening the fourth with her 56^th to extend the Mocs' lead back to two goals, 11-9.
 
The Tars would once again tie things at 11-11 before Florida Southern would score three straight from Tare (2) and Stoller before the game headed into the nearly two-hour delay. Out of the weather delay, Florida Southern used all the shot clock on the first possession which ended in a Stoller feed to Daleo for the 15-11 lead.
 
With a few empty possession, Rollins was finally able to crack the deficit with a goal at 0:22 on the clock for the 15-12 score. The Tars won the following draw and scored on a dangerous lunging shot by Courtney Martin that stood as good with 13 seconds to play, 15-13.
 
Florida Southern won the final draw control and was able to take the game to its final buzzer and the teams second win over Rollins this season, both ending in two-goal games.
 
The Moccasins will now head to Tampa on Sunday, April 30 for the 2023 Sunshine State Conference Championship, an exact rematch of the 2022 Championship that favored the Mocs, 20-10.
 
The game is set to take place at the Naimoli Stadium, with a game time yet to be determined.
  Read Full Article