The Eckerd College Men's Soccer team (4-3, 2-0 SSC) won their first home match of the season against Florida Southern Wednesday night; it was also their second conference win in a row. After missing the previous game, Eckerd captain
Luke Sheekey scored two goals in the second half as well as assisted senior
Colin Kuhn's goal in the 49th minute.
Freshman
Turner Humphries scored his first collegiate goal in the third minute of play, assisted by Kuhn and
Alex Patterson. This early goal enabled Eckerd to maintain an unbeatable energy throughout the match and obtain their 5-0 shutout against Florida Southern.
The second goal of the game was credited to another freshman,
Matt Duffy, who played the ball off of a cross from senior defender
Will Thacker in the 40th minute.
Despite an early end to the game in the 85th minute due to lightning, Eckerd Head Coach Jeremy Wisdo was able to get some of his secondary players out on the field and obtain valuable playing time.
Sophomore goalie
Domenic Spedaliere played a crucial part in the shutout defeat against Southern with his three saves.
In the second half of the match, there were a total of three yellow cards given out; one each to Florida Southern's Brad Hunt and Aleksander Ratkovic and one to Eckerd's
Grant Edick.
Eckerd will return to action on Tuesday, September 29 against Saint Leo University at the Turley Athletic Complex. The game will begin at 7p.m.
Post-game Interviews with Coach Jeremy Wisdo, Freshman
Turner Humphries, and Senior
Colin Kuhn:
Coach Wisdo on Eckerd's first home win of the season…
“It's been a long time coming. The guys earned it today, they played well, and they finished well.”
On the energy coming into the game against Florida Southern after their first conference win against Barry University…
“I think it definitely helped, obviously winning on Saturday gave us confidence and more belief into what we are doing. We have been knocking on the door game in and game out…for whatever reason the ball wasn't falling our way, the breaks weren't going our way. That happened on Saturday, but we forced the breaks, we forced our luck and I think that carried over today. We came in with a lot of confidence today, and I think the guys knew exactly what we wanted from them and they did a fantastic job of going out and doing exactly what we talked about.”
On carrying the energy from the first half with a 2-0 lead into the second half…
“We talked about how we played a solid first half, and how Florida Southern was going to come out and really try to take the game to us, and it was very important that we locked down defensively and not give them any opportunities, because if we did that then they are going to open up on our attack. The timing of our two goals in the second half effectively killed the game. The guys did a great job of making some of the adjustments that we talked about at halftime and getting back to what we were doing at the start of the first half, because we kind of got away from that a little bit towards the end of the first, and as soon as we got in back, bam two goals, game over.”
On getting to have some of the secondary players out on the field and get some playing time…
“Florida Southern is a very good team. We finished our chances today; that is what helped us get the result that we did. It was a great opportunity for a lot of guys who have worked very hard and trained hard to get some time, because those guys need experience, they need games under their belt as well, because we never know when they are going to be called upon.”
On carrying the energy from the two conference wins over to Tuesday's game against Saint Leo…
“We got better from Saturday to today, so the goal is to get better from now to Saint Leo. Saint Leo is another very good team, it is a conference game so it is obviously going to be very difficult, but it's a home game so we are hoping that the confidence and momentum carry over.”
Freshman
Turner Humphries on his first goal in his collegiate career for Eckerd:
“I was pretty much too shocked to even think about it, I didn't even get a good celebration in. I didn't know what was happening. I was just glad it went in.”
