Georgia Southern scored a pair of second half goals and Stetson suffered its first defeat of the season in a 2-1 loss, Friday at the Athletic Training Center.
After a sluggish first half for both teams, Georgia Southern came out of halftime looking to force the action.
“Their coach did a great job of getting them fired up for the second half and they were very aggressive after halftime,” Stetson interim head coach Jared Vock said. “It seemed like they were winning every 50-50 ball. We gave up a couple of goals that could have been prevented. We need to make sure we play a little bit better soccer than we did tonight.”
All the scoring too place in the second half. Georgia Southern (2-1-0) took an early 1-0 lead when Adam Abdellaoui finished a cross from Hunter Loyden from 12 yards out in the 50th minute.
The Eagles doubled their lead to 2-0 when Emil Laursen converted a penalty kick in the 69th minute.
Stetson (1-1-1) got back in the game in the 78th minute when Luke Ferreira and Gabriel Diniz worked a give-and-go in a crowded goal box. Ferreira used some nifty footwork to get the ball to Diniz, who immediately returned it to a charging Ferreira for a blast from 10 yards out.
The Hatters played with urgency over the final 12 minutes but couldn't score the equalizer. Eyal Cohen had a free kick from 30 yards out with 80 seconds to play but his cross attempt went wide and proved to be Stetson's last significant opportunity of the match.
Paul Ladwig made four saves in goal for the Hatters while his counterpart, Chase Herzog, stopped five shots for the Eagles. Both teams got off 12 shots in the match.
The Hatters next face UNC Asheville, 1 p.m., Monday at the ATC.
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