Saint Leo, Fla. — The Florida Southern Men's Soccer team (4-1-0, 0-0-0 SSC) lost to Saint Leo (3-1-1, 0-0-0 SSC) by a 4-3 margin on Friday night (Sep. 11) in a match that was originally scheduled for the day prior due to weather. Florida Southern scored all three of its goals in the second half in an eight minute span, but was too late to mount the major comeback. The Mocs finished with a 14-12 edge in shots, including 10 attempts after halftime.
Florida Southern answered the Lions' 34th-minute goal with two shots off the woodwork, as
Pablo Overfeld hit the left post in the 36th minute and
Darcy Moffat struck the top frame three minutes later. Earlier, Florida Southern generated the first shot through Moffat, earned two corner kicks in a four-minute stretch, and had
Ricardo Marques make saves on SLU chances in the ninth and 31st minutes of the first half. Pietro Botasso scored for the Lions off an assist from Virgilio Escala at in the 33rd minute, and the Moccasins went into halftime trailing 1-0.
After a barrage of goals from the home squad, FSC turned a 4-0 deficit into a one-goal finish, scoring three times in the final 11 minutes, but would be too late to score the tying goal. The Lions goals came at the 55:18, 58:03 and 60:39 marks, while the Mocs answered with pressure that included two Overfeld shots, a
Chandler Crawshaw attempt on goal and a corner kick in the 67th minute.
Gustav Lind led the comeback with his first two goals as a Moc in the 79th and 84th minutes, one assisted by Moffat off a cross and the other by
Max Muth, to make it 4-2.
Last year's SSC Freshman of the Year in
Joao Lopes made his mark and scored his first goal of the season from a
Luciano Schiaffini assist just two minutes before the final horn. Florida Southern earned one more corner at 88:49 but could not convert to end the match ended 4-3.
Lind scored twice and put both of his shots on goal, finishing with four points. Lopes added a goal on his lone shot attempt. Moffat recorded an assist and two shots. Max and Schiaffini also tallied an assist and added one shot.
Luis Gaitan scored twice, including the game-winning goal, and put all three of his shots on goal. Virgilio Escala recorded two assists for the Lions. Pietro Botasso tallied the first goal and finished with three shots, including two on frame. Viktor Danielsson scored on his lone shot attempt.
Up next, Florida Southern travels to face Eckerd on Wednesday (Sep. 16) at 7 PM at Johnson Field in St. Petersburg, Florida for their first conference match of the 2026 campaign.
