WINTER PARK, Fla. (October 1, 2025) - Men's soccer put together their most impressive effort of the season on Wednesday en route to taking down #6 Tampa 2-1. The win moves the Tars to 4-2-2 on the year with a 1-1-1 record in the SSC while the Spartans suffer their first loss of the year and fall to 5-1-2, 1-1-1 SSC.
Neither team was able to get a great look in the first fifteen minutes of action, but the Tars soon changed the script. After a defensive stop,
Kaden Foreman found himself streaking up the left side with the ball. After making a move into the box, he pump faked a shot to draw the defense his way, and made a perfect pass to
Yousef Shakweer, who drilled the ball into the top corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Just a minute later, the Tars had a fantastic chance to score again, but the stout Tampa defense was able to block three straight shots in the box before the could reach the goal.
Rollins looked great on offense throughout the night, finding open lanes and making crisp passes. Though they weren't able to finish each time, it was encouraging to see solid ball movement.
In the second half,
Pablo Herrero provided a spark off the bench for the Tars. He set his teammates up on multiple occasions, including the second goal of the match. After working around a defender, he chipped a cheeky pass over the keeper to the feet of
Justin Nelson, who delivered his sixth goal of the season to put Rollins up 2-0.
Things got very interesting in the 69th minute when
Jakob Theuerkauf was dealt his second yellow card of the match, leading to an ejection. With a man down, and a free kick awarded on the play,
Kilian Vallant was able to stop the initial strike from the Spartans, but the rebound found its way past his outstretched hand to cut the lead in half.
The final twenty minutes were played at a frenetic pace as Tampa desperately tried to equalize. A massive hat tip goes to the Rollins defensive back line, including
Hayden Judge and
Jaden Splunge, who both turned away multiple chances by the Spartans. Following the Tampa goal, they were not able to put another shot on goal for the remainder of the game.
Only five saves were recorded in the game as quality looks were hard to come by. Vallant was responsible for three of them on the way to earning his fourth win of the season.
Next up for Rollins is a road game at Florida Southern on Wednesday, October 8. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00pm from Lakeland.
