WINTER PARK, Fla. (September 24, 2022) - The Rollins Tars suffered their first home loss of the season on Saturday evening, falling 3-1 to the Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish. The Tars now sit at 6-2-1 (2-2 SSC), while Palm Beach Atlantic moves to 6-2 (2-2 SSC).
The first half was scoreless, but featured some beautiful defense from both sides. Though the teams combined for 11 shots in the half, only two were on goal as each defense smothered their respective opponent. At times, the smothering defense became a bit too aggressive, leading to four total yellow cards in the first period. Each goalie,
Maximillian Obermeier and Guillermo, Falo, recorded one save as the two teams went into the locker room tied at nil.
In the 53rd minute, the Sailfish broke the tie with the first goal of the game. They displayed some phenomenal passing as they made their way through the Tars' defense, leading to a perfect through ball from Giancarlo Dostilio to Niall Owens, who was able to send one into the net with his left foot.
It did not take long for Rollins to respond. Just four minutes later,
Michael Landau collected a loose ball at midfield and pushed it forward to
Georgios Koliniatis. With a Sailfish defender on his back, he was able to establish position, gain control of the ball, take a few dribbles and fire a cross-body shot with his right foot to knot things up at one apiece.
Unfortunately, another rapid response was on deck. Only three minutes later, Dostilio received a pass in Tars' territory, and went to work. He made his way around a Rollins defender, and then froze Obermeier, finding the right corner of the net to give Palm Beach Atlantic a 2-1 lead. The Sailfish added a third goal in the 64th minute as they broke through the usually stout Tars defense.
The final ten minutes of the game got a little chippy with three more yellows being handed out, including one to a PBA player who wasn't even in the game.
Rollins won't have much time to dwell on the loss as they are back in action on Tuesday at Florida Tech, with a 6:00 pm scheduled kickoff.
