MELBOURNE, Fla. - The Florida Southern College men's soccer team hit the road for the first time in over a month struggling to find the back of the net as #19 Florida Tech finished with a 3-0 win in Sunshine State Conference play on Rick Stottler Field.
The Moccasins (3-4-2, 1-4-0) and Panthers (8-3-0, 5-1-0) both finished with 13 shots as FSC had seven shots on goal to FL Tech's four. Florida Tech's keeper Iker Bastida led the way finishing with seven saves while Florida Southern's keeper
Lasse Dettmer had one. From the corner, the Mocs had six with the Panthers only having three in the second half.
The Mocs attacked first as
Dakota Henry and
Paul Hansen had back-to-back shots on goal with the Panthers keeper making the save to keep the game scoreless in the 15th minute.
The teams would go back and forth swamping possessions with two shots from each team before Dettmer had a save to keep the game scoreless within the 28th minute. Both teams brought in fresh legs as time started to wind down in the first half. A throw-in that made it to half field bobbled around touching a Moccsain and was grabbed by the FSC keeper giving Dettmer the foul allowing Filippo Fazzi to set up just outside the box. With the Mocs defense set up in a line to defend the goal, Fazzi's kick curved into the right side of the goal over Dettmer for the first goal of the night.
Fazzi's late goal in the 40th minute allowed the Panthers to head into halftime with a 1-0 advantage with the Mocs forced to fight from behind to start the second half.
Florida Tech came out of the break scoring in the first two minutes to take a 2-0 lead. FSC quickly answered back with shots from
Dylan Lowther,
Sonny Albert, and
Darcy Moffat who's shot was saved by the Panthers keeper.
Florida Southern's defense went to work keeping Florida Tech's shots away from in between the goal posts as Moffat shots went flying into the hands of the Panther's keeper in the 84th minute trying to cut the lead down to just one goal.
The Panthers quickly took advantage from a wide shot from
George Spencer and capitalized on their own foul, scoring in the 87th minute for a 3-0 advantage. Albert and
Ruben Linden both tried to close in on the Panther's lead as time dwindled down but keeper Bastida held strong with two more saves to conclude the game with a 3-0 shutout.
Florida Southern's road streak continues as they travel to Winter Park for a rescheduled game against Rollins College. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. on Cahall-Sandspur Field.
