On Friday, the Seton Hall men’s soccer team travelled to Fort Myers, Florida to take on the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, the country’s 18th ranked team. Despite putting up a noble effort, the Pirates ultimately lost, 1-0.
The game started off in a stalemate, with not much happening in the opening minutes. The first shot of the game occurred at the 7th minute courtesy of Florida Gulf Coast, which missed the net. After a foul on Florida Gulf Coast, the Pirates got their first shot off, courtesy of Carlton McKenzie, but it went wide left.
Both teams could not penetrate far into each other’s territory until the 24th minute when both teams traded shots. FGCU’s shot was saved by Andreas Nota, and Seton Hall’s shot was taken by JP Marin, which went left and over the goal. The Pirates only got one more shot for the half, while FGCU got two shots off, one of which was saved by Nota, yet again.
The second half started out interestingly, as Florida Gulf Coast picked up a yellow card 15 seconds into the half. Both teams managed to get shots off early in the half, and FGCU seemed to be slowly putting more pressure on the Pirates. The Eagles picked up two more yellow cards as the half continued, but none of the fouls wound up resulting in a red card. In the 77th minute, Andrea Borg and Marin both had shots on goal that were masterfully saved by the Eagles’ goalkeeper. At the very last second, the dam that was the Seton Hall defense broke and Florida Gulf Coast scored a goal with 89:45 on the clock to ensure a heartbreaking loss.
FGCU finished with 12 shot on goal, while the Pirates finished with eight. Nota had six saves.
The Pirates will stay in Florida for their next game as they take on Florida International University. Kickoff is scheduled for Sept. 8 at 7 p.m.
Joseph Ippolito can be reached at joseph.ippolito@student.shu.edu or on Twitter @joeippy.
