Men’s Soccer Ties the Series with Region Rivals Eastern Florida

The #4 Ranked Daytona State Soccer team (12-2) faced their region rivals, #16 Eastern Florida Titans, on Saturday, October 22nd at home. Coming into the best of three series with a loss, Daytona was able to force a winner-take-all game on Saturday, October 30th with a 3-1 win at home.

"It was great to see the guys come out and fight for what they wanted. They took what coach had to say and executed very well," Goalkeeper, Will Diaz, after the match.

The Falcons outshot the Titans 18-8 with the first goal coming in the 17th minute of the contest. Christian Cordeiro slipped a ball through the Titan's back line to find Kevin Kelly 1v1 with the Titans keeper. "It was a hard-fought match against our rivals Eastern, who are a very good team. We knew going into the game that it was a must win and we were all delighted with the result! Go falcons!"  Said sophomore forward Kevin Kelly after his two goals helped win the match.

Daytona continued to push in the second half for a second goal, hitting the target 3 times before Eastern Florida tied the game in the 61st minute. Directly from a corner kick, the Titans corner kick taker put the ball into the back corner of the Falcon's goal. Just seven minutes after tying the game, Freshmen midfielder, Carlos Zambrano, was taken down in the Titan's 18-yard box to earn the Falcons a penalty kick. Kevin Kelly stepped up to take the penalty and calmly placed it in the top right corner to get his second goal of the night. The scoring ended in favor of the Falcons when Carlos Zambrano served a ball from a freekick into the heart of the Titan's 18-yard box where Freshmen defender, Sam Nicholson, head it into the back of the net to make it 3-1.

 "This was a total team effort to secure this win. We have quality players and tonight, our team spirit and quality of play was in full display," Assistant Coach Joe Avallone.

The Falcon's next match will be at home versus Johnson University on Tuesday, October 25th at 7 PM.