WINTER PARK, Fla. (October 28, 2022) - The Rollins Tars continued their impressive season with a regular season finale victory over the visiting Florida Southern Mocs, 3-2, on Friday evening. The win was the Tars' tenth of the year, and they now stand at 10-3-2 (6-3-1 SSC). Florida Southern finishes their year 4-5-7 (1-4-5 SSC).
Southern couldn't have asked for a better start to the contest. Roughly 90 seconds in, the Mocs controlled the ball off a throw-in. A touch pass found Kyle Carr in front of the goalie box, where he was able to blast the ball past a diving
Maximillian Obermeier. Thankfully, it didn't take long for the Tars to respond. On a corner kick,
Michael Landau flew a beautiful ball into the far side of the box where Ninrod Picado powered it home with a header to knot things up at one just twelve minutes into the match.
That score would carry into halftime, but it wasn't for lack of effort. In the first half, Rollins fired eleven shots at the Mocs keeper, with four counting as on target. Rollins also had five corner kick opportunities in the first forty-five minutes.
The first twenty minutes of the second half turned physical as both teams played tough. A number of stoppages were called due to fouls and a handful of yellow cards. In the 67th minute, it was Carr striking again with a perfect header off a feed from Dylan Lowther to make it 2-1 Florida Southern.
A quick response was once again in the cards for the Tars. Three minutes later,
Jari Polm worked the middle of the Southern zone, and then kicked the ball out left to a waiting Kaden Foreman. The big freshman delivered an absolute strike to the far side of the box where a streaking
Hayden Smethurst volleyed the ball out of the air and into the net to tie things at two.
The game was clinched for Rollins in the 75th minute by the team's leading scorer,
Georgios Koliniatis. After a battle for possession at midfield, Pedro Lameiras came away with the ball. He did not hesitate to deliver a perfect through ball downfield past a sliding defender to the sprinting Greek. with the goalie coming out to meet him, Koliniatis flicked the ball up, over, and in to make the score 3-2, which would be the final score.
Rollins ended the game with 22 total shots, eleven of which were on target. They were also a little too aggressive on defense, as they were whistled for eleven fouls and four yellow cards.
The win secured the #4 seed for Rollins in the upcoming SSC tournament. They will host a first-round match against #5 Nova Southeastern on Monday, October 31.
