Eastern Florida’s men’s soccer team scored a home-opening victory on Sunday, defeating Lewis & Clark College 3-1 in a lightning shortened game at the Titan Soccer Complex on the Melbourne Campus. (Eastern Florida image)
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Eastern Florida’s men’s soccer team scored a home-opening victory on Sunday, defeating Lewis & Clark College 3-1 in a lightning shortened game at the Titan Soccer Complex on the Melbourne Campus.
The victory, broadcast live via WEFS-TV and online webcast, improved Eastern Florida’s record to 2-0-1 and kept inaugural head coach Oliver Twelvetrees, now in his third season, unbeaten at home.
The Titans, ranked No. 4 nationally, rallied from a 1-0 deficit with first-half goals from freshman J.J. Donnelly with 24 minutes and 26 seconds remaining and from classmate Ibrahim Kouyate with 12:37 to go.
Sophomore Yannick Koffi made it 3-1 Titans with 38:51 remaining in the game, which was called with 9:40 to play due to lightning.
Koffi has a team-leading three goals.
Lewis & Clark, which got an opening goal from sophomore Connor Clasby at the 36:42 mark, dropped to 5-2.
Oliver Twelvetrees
“We need to learn how to kill a game off and we need to learn to have a little more quality in that final third but a 3-1 win it’s fantastic,” said Twelvetrees. “We’ll take it the win and move on and learn from it.
“We do have the quality going forward, no doubt about it. We’ll continue to work on the defensive side and get that shutout hopefully in the future.
“We want to defend from the front, we want to defend as a whole unit and not isolate the back four.”
Eastern Florida returns to action visiting Kaiser University at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Port St. Lucie and host Jefferson College at 6 p.m. Friday in a game to be carried live on WEFS-TV and streamed live at www.efsctitans.com
Before Sunday’s men’s match, the EFSC women’s soccer team faced the Lewis and Clark women’s team, with the Titans rallying to win 4-3 and move to 3-0 on the season and into contention for the top national ranking. Read more about the women’s match.
Eastern Florida Women Rally for 4-3 Soccer Victory
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Freshman Paula Astiazaran scored three goals as Eastern Florida’s No. 2-nationally ranked women’s soccer team rallied for a 4-3 victory on Sunday.
The victory over Lewis & Clark College at the Titan Soccer Complex on the Melbourne Campus lifted the Titans to 3-0. It also put them in position to claim the No. 1 national ranking in the wake of NJCAA and National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) No. 1-ranked Monroe College losing its opening game.
The loss dropped Lewis & Clark to 5-1-1 but the Trailblazers certainly gave Eastern Florida all it could handle.
Titans freshman Julia Hernandez got the first goal with 18 minutes and 37 seconds to play in the first half. The lead lasted just more than 11 minutes as Lewis & Clark sophomore Cassidy Foley found the range on an angle to knot things at 1-1.
Astiazaran got her first goal of the game with 42:51 to play but Lewis & Clark evened it at 2-2 with 33:17 to go when the nation’s leading scorer sophomore Nicole Howard notched her 13th goal of the season.
Sixteen minutes later Howard struck again to a 4-3 lead, putting the Titans behind for the first time this season.
But then Astiazaran and her teammates responded.
Astiazaran got the equalizer with 26:53 to go when the Lewis & Clark goalkeeper muffed a rolling shot that went through her legs and into the net.
Astiazaran then sealed things with a rocket of a shot with 17:54 to go and the Titans held on. Astiazaran has six goals this season.
The last time Eastern Florida was ranked No. 1 was in 2012 when it was Brevard Community College.
And while head coach Jeff Carr expressed disappointment with his team effort after challenging them to rise up to playing like a possible No. 1 team he also praised its character.
Jeff Carr
“I challenged them at half,” he said. “I said we’re not playing like (No. 1). We don’t deserve to be No. 1. I said we had the talent here to win it all but mentally I don’t think we were ready for this game today.
“We stay composed. Paula was composed out there. Several of them did a great job in that second half to get us back in the game.
“Still a pretty disappointing game. Effort overall not good enough.”
As for Astiazaran: “Special player,” Carr said. “She just gets the job done. Wow.”
Eastern Florida scrimmages an Orlando City women’s team at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Titan Soccer Complex before traveling to Albany, Georgia for its next game, playing Darton College at 7 p.m. Sept. 18.
