Men's soccer team blanks Laramie County

The fifth-ranked Eastern Florida State College men's soccer team shut out Laramie County Community College Thursday night at Titan Soccer Complex to improve to 3-1 on the season.

The Titans scored twice in each half to pick up the 4-0 win locking up the second shutout of the season.

"Laramie is a well-coached team and they have hunger and desire. It was very, very difficult and it was always going to be that first goal and we knew we had that quality, but that first goal was so important," Eastern Florida State College men's soccer coach Oliver Twelvetrees said. "Damen scored on an absolute wonderful strike. That is why we brought him here, he has moments like that in him and that was a strike worthy of the occasion. That goal got the ball rolling."

Damen Marcu's shot hit the top of the net with seven minutes and 12 seconds remaining in the first half after the teams traded runs for the first 37 minutes of the contest.

The Titans would strike again right before halftime as freshman Curtez Kellman headed a cross into the back of the net. It was Kellman's first goal of the season and gave the Titans a 2-0 lead at the break.

"That is the special thing about this team is that we have goal scorers all over the park, we have a lot of talented players and sometimes fitting everyone into the lineup is difficult and sometimes putting the jigsaw together is a challenge," Twelvetrees said.

Another freshman made it 3-0 as Afolabi Soyemi-Olade scored his first goal of the season on an assist from Thomas Inglesias nine minutes into the second half.

Goalkeeper Nour Moaoui made some good saves in the second half to keep the shutout and then defender Moussa Gueye made it 4-0, scoring on a free kick with under eight minutes remaining.

"They were an energetic team, but I thought our defense coped well and gave them few opportunities. I am happy with the desire to keep a clean sheet," Twelvetrees said.

Eastern Florida State College will travel to North Carolina next weekend, playing Wake Technical Community College next Friday and host Louisburg, who is No. 20 in the preseason poll next Saturday.