#4 Men’s Soccer has first loss of the season to #20 Eastern Florida

The Daytona State men's soccer team (4-1-0) took their first loss of the season at the hands of their Florida rivals, Eastern Florida State College, 3-1. In a best of three series for Region 8, both teams came into this game nationally ranked, the Falcons at #4 and the Titans at #20. After a two and a half hour lightning delay, the match officially kicked off at 9:30PM under the lights and rain in Melbourne, FL.

In a very tight and even contest during first half, the Falcons outshot the Titans 7-4. With 6 minutes left in the first half, the Titans broke the deadlock scoring a tap in off a shot that rebounded off goalkeeper Will Diaz.

During the first 5 minutes of the second half, Daytona was looking to even the score early taking 4 shots. Sam Nicholson was able to get the Falcons level, temporarily, as his goal was later called back for offside. In the run of play, the Falcons evened the score in the 70th minute. Freshmen, Lisandro Molina (Mendoza, Argentina), hit a first-time strike from just outside the 18-yard box to find the bottom left corner of the Titans net. Just minutes after tying the game, Eastern Florida caught a break from a quick counterattack to see them take the lead again.

Behind on the scoreboard for a second time on the night, Daytona had to change the system to get more numbers forward. With 4 minutes left in the second half, Eastern Florida ended the scoring for the night with another goal scored from a quick counter that caught Daytona committing a lot of numbers forward.

The Falcons will head to South Carolina where they will play two games on the weekend. Saturday, September 17 vs Patrick Henry and Sunday, September 18 vs USC Lancaster.