By Jennell Retamar
The Men’s Soccer team had a devastating loss at Palm Beach Atlantic on Sep. 17th. The Mocs fought hard but went 0-4 as Palm Beach Atlantic scored once in the first half and three times in the second.
Palm Beach scored a goal early on in the first half and came back to seal the Mocs’ fate as they scored again in the second half thrice.
“They’re one of the top teams in the nation and not being on our home turf doesn’t really help much either. As a team point of view we started off really slow and we conceded a goal early in the game,” sophomore Luke Bromley said.
Senior Goalkeeper Cole Clingerman had four saves and freshman Rene Rivera and Mikel Duque made their first appearances for the Mocs.
“I believe the final result doesn’t replicate the character of the team and that we didn’t deserve to lose by that much,” Bromley said.
The Moccasins stayed hopeful in the beginning of their season, enough to tie at their Sept. 21 game against Eckerd. This was their third Sunshine State Conference game.
Although the Tritons held down the first half, the Mocs came back and scored in the second half.
Senior Jonathan Radvogin assisted Freshman Joseph Ammer in the second half as Ammer scored for the Moccasins to tie the game.
The Mocs had a total of 29 shots with four being on goal shots. Junior Edward Spansk was an offensive powerhouse for the Mocs in extra time.
“We played better than we done before and we found a formation that works well with us as a team,” Edward Spansk said.
Spansk returned for the first time this season after missing the first five games due to an injury. Spansk nearly scored in the first half after hitting a header from Jacob Ling-Vannerus, unfortunately the Eckerd goalkeeper blocked the shot.
“We had some difficulty defensively in the first half and we were able to figure it out in the second half and our offensive definitely stepped up,” Spansk said.
Senior Goalkeeper Cole Clingerman had five saves against the Tritons and now has 201 totaled in his career for the Mocs. Clingerman is the eighth goalkeeper in team history to have at least 200 saves. He is now tied for sixth on the all-time list for Florida Southern.
The Mocs will be at home again this Saturday for their fifth Sunshine State Conference game against Barry University at 7 p.m.
