PENSACOLA, Fla. (September 2, 2022) - The Rollins Tars began their road trip the right way with a 2-1 upset win over the nationally-ranked #24 West Florida Argonauts on Friday evening. Rollins now sits at 2-0-1 on the season, while West Florida fall to 1-2-0.
The Tars came out on the attach, putting quality shots on goal against Argos keeper AJ Evans. they had three chances in the first 15 minutes of the game, but each attempt was turned away by Evans. Meanwhile,
Maximillian Obermeier saved the only shot on goal he saw early on to keep the Argos off the scoreboard.
West Florida were a but careless with the ball around the 30 minute mark.
Michael Landau was able to wreak havoc on a ball sent from an Argos defender back to the goalie. As Evans went to clear the ball, Landau was able to step in front and take possession. With the goalie well out of position, a solidly struck shot rolled about twenty feet and found the back of the net for the first score of the game.
The Tars did not have long to celebrate however as West Florida scored a mere three minutes later on a shot from Jack Patching off of a feed from teammate Fynn Geigle. The two teams would head into halftime tied at one.
Rollins played a patient game in the second half, perfectly content with holding the ball and working it around the pitch. Any time West Florida took possession, either the crashing defense or the brick walled Obermeier would shut down the Argos attack. The waiting game would pay off late, as
Patrick Horan took a pass from
Georgios Koliniatis in the 82nd minute and fired it past Evans to give the Tars a 2-1 lead.
In the 2-1 win, Rollins was out shot by West Florida 20-7, but kept it close in shots on goal; five of seven shots for the Tars were on goal, while the Argos only put seven of twenty on the net. Obermeier ended up with six saves, including five in the second half. Each goal scored by Rollins was the second of the year for the respective shooter.
The Tars will have a day to travel to Mobile, Alabama before they faceoff against Spring Hill College at 1:00 pm on Sunday.
