Box Score
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Florida Southern College reeled off five unanswered goals to come back and spoil the Eckerd College men's soccer program's Sunshine State Conference home opener at the Turley Athletic Complex on Wednesday night, 5-1.
Corey Mills and Luke Jenner each scored two goals to lead the Mocs' (3-5-0, 1-1-0 SSC) as they countered a goal in the seventh minute by the Tritons (3-5-2, 1-1-0 SSC).
Carlos Rodriguez also found the net for Florida Southern as most of the damage was done in the first half.
Eckerd, Florida Southern and defending national champion Lynn University, are now all 1-1 (.500) in the SSC standings.
Mills scored back-to-back strikes in the opening period while Jenner converted a penalty kick to account for the only second-half scoring in the 83rd minute.
Eckerd senior midfielder
Mark Lee headed in a ball from a beautiful service off a free kick by
Daniel Lopez that gave the Tritons an early lead. For Lee, it was his first goal of the season while it marked the third consecutive match for Lopez with a point recorded.
Lopez now has three goals and three assists on the season and is second on the team with nine points.
The Tritons were coming off a conference-opening win on the road just last Saturday at Florida Tech.
After Lee put the Tritons on top with an angled header past FSC goalkeeper Cole Clingerman, the Mocs generated the equalizer about six minutes later.
The Florida Southern go-ahead score was punched in by Mills 59 seconds after Rodriguez' header at the 14:41 mark in regulation. Mills slipped loose in the box and was the beneficiary of a loose ball as he went left-to-right for the 2-1 lead.
The Mocs ended up scoring a total of four goals on just eight shots in the first 45 minutes of regulation to take a 4-1 lead into the intermission.
The Tritons went on the offensive in the second half to generate good looks at the target and eventually held a 16-12 advantage in the shot department, but couldn't chip into the deficit any further.
Eckerd will regroup to prepare to host Palm Beach Atlantic University on Saturday at 6 p.m. The non-conference match will take center stage on campus before the Triton Tip-Off (comparable to basketball Midnight Madness across the nation) in the McArthur Center gets underway at 9 p.m.
