WINTER PARK, Fla. (October 21, 2023) - A special evening began with joy and ended the same way as Rollins defeated the Eckerd Tritons 2-0 on Saturday in Winter Park. The Tars move to 6-3-3 on the year, with a 4-3-1 mark in the SSC. Eckerd falls to 4-5-4 and 2-4-2 in SSC play.
Before the game, seven graduating seniors were honored by the Tars coaching staff:
Rian Barrett,
Alex Holt,
Elvar Kristjansson,
Maximillian Obermeier,
Colin O'Mahony,
Jari Polm, and
Nazar Tsaruk.
Once the action on the field got going, it didn't take long for the Tars to take the lead. In the fourth minute,
Yousef Shakweer made a run up the far side of the pitch, dodged a defender with some nifty dribbling, and sent a pss backwards to
Rory Doyle. The Irishman send an absolute rocket to the top bin, notching his second brace of the season.
The game slowed down from there from a scoring perspective, but there was plenty of action happening on the field. The team combined for eleven shots in the first half, but neither team could add a point to their total.
In the second half, the Tars showed their aggression positively, firing ten shots, and negatively, receiving five yellow cards. In the 61st minute, it looked like the Tritons had a chance to knot the score, but a shot from Finn Steele went wide left, and the ensuing rebound sot from Luciano Rodriguez hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced back into play, where it was promptly cleared by the Tars defense.
In the 70th minute,
Patrick Horan found an open path on the sideline, and turned on the jets to speed past his defender. As the backline Tritons collapsed on him he found enough space to feed Tsaruk, who used his left foot to blow one by the Triton keeper, making it 2-0.
A scary moment happened just minutes later when
Sam Latty and Aidan Leak collided in the box. Leak had to be helped off the field and did not return to the match. We wish him well in his recovery.
The tenacious Tars defense held strong for the remainder of the match, closing it out at 2-0. The goal for Tsaruk was his eighth of the season, second most on the team.
Max Walker was great in-between the pipes, recording two saves and posting his second shutout of the year.
Rollins will spend the remainder of their regular season on the road. Next up is a trip to Daytona to take on the Embry-Riddle Eagles, who Rollins defeated 6-0 earlier this season. Kickoff is scheduled for Tuesday, October 24 at 7:00 pm.
