DeLand, Fla. ? The Stetson men's soccer team fell to 2-2-0 on the season with a 1-0 loss to FAU (2-3-0) at the Stetson Soccer Complex. For the second consecutive game the Hatters dropped a hard-fought, physical battle with an in-state rival.
Tempers began to flare late in the first half when the Owls had a goal called back due to a hand-ball by Darnell King (Tampa, Fla.). King deflected the ball down to his feet and then set up teammate Javier Carrillo (Boca Raton, Fla.) who found the net. An immediate call by the nearside linesman led to a lengthy discussion and the eventual overturn of the goal call by the referee.
The teams went into the half scoreless with Stetson holding a 5-3 advantage in shots.
The second half opened with physical play and tension in the air. Within the first four minutes of the crowd of 520 enthusiastic Stetson fans witnessed three yellow cards and a melee that nearly turned into a bench-clearing brawl. The Owls bench charged the field while the Hatters displayed discipline and stayed home.
Although Stetson out shot the Owls 11-5 in the second half and 16-8 overall, it was FAU that scored the only goal of the game. At 55:38 Rocco Pecora (Tampa, Fla.) shifted through the defense and found an open path to the goal. He blasted a left footer from 20 yards that glanced off the gloves of the diving Stetson keeper Marc Galizia (Bradenton, Fla.) and into the upper left corner of the goal.
“We learned a painful lesson tonight” said Hatters Head Coach T. Logan Fleck. “If we can't score we have to play clean, tight defense. We had some good runs of play, but obviously not enough to tie the game.”
Stetson made a valiant charge coming down the stretch but could not manage an equalizer.
“Going forward we need to maintain the fighting spirit we showed in the final minutes of this game”, added Fleck.
After opening the season with four home games, Stetson heads out on a six-game road trip sandwiched around an Alumni Game exhibition on September 20 at 4:00 p.m. The road-stretch opens with the ACC?s Clemson University on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.
