WINTER PARK, Fla. (November 6, 2023) - Rollins made light work of the #6 seed Florida Southern Mocs on Monday evening, winning their quarterfinal match 5-1. The win moves the Tars to 9-4-3 on the year, while Southern falls to 5-6-6.
It did not take long for the Tars to get on the board. In the sixth minute,
Jorge Lameiras and
Patrick Horan executed a perfect give-and-go, leading to a laser strike from Lameiras to put Rollins up 1-0.
In the 31st minute, Rollins turned up the pressure on defense, and forced a bad pass from a Mocs defender who was attempting to send it back to the goalie. That led to a foot-race between
Nazar Tsaruk and another Moc, with Naz beating him by a step, able to slide-touch the ball into the net to make the halftime score of 2-0.
With a comfortable lead, coach
Keith Buckley made some substitutions, and they paid off in a big way. The first example came twelve minutes into the half when
Liam Knight received a beautiful cross from Lameiras, and banged it home for his first brace of the season.
Only four minutes later, it was deja vu all over again. Lameiras sent another cross into the box, which ended up near the feet of Knight. He calmly bounced the ball off the bottom half of the crossbar and across the line for his second of the game.
The Mocs avoided a shutout when Kyle Carr scored only twenty seconds later to make it 4-1.
The scoring ended with only 40 seconds to go.
Rian Barrett put on an impressive display of ball control, juking a defender before ripping a rocket into the top bin to make the final of 5-1.
The win advances Rollins to the semi-final against #2 seed Florida Tech. The game will be played at 4:30 pm on Thursday, November 9 in Melbourne.