Men's soccer team clinches Region 8 regular season conference title

Men's soccer team clinches Region 8 regular season conference title

The Eastern Florida State College men's soccer team clinched the Region 8 Conference regular season title Wednesday night.

The Titans defeated Broward College 3-2 at Orlando Health Stadium to wrap up the No. 1 seed in next week's NJCAA District/FCSAA State Soccer Tournament. 

Broward College got on the board first as Santiago Emirian scored less than three minutes into the match.

But Eastern Florida State College freshman Abdoulaye Diop scored less than a minute later to tie the game, hitting a shot into the corner from outside the box.

The game would head to the half tied 1-1 but the sophomores would step up in the second half as Aedon Kyra scored his 10th goal of the season four minutes into the second half to give the Titans the lead for the first time.

Teammate Marc Grifell would make it 3-1 with his fourth goal of the season. Broward would close the gap with a penalty kick goal, but the Titans held on to improve to 11-1-1 overall and 5-0-1 in the conference.

"The resilience of the boys was very impressive today, coming back from a goal down and was really impressed with their ability to come back. We certainly had some shaky moments, but we had the opportunity to score goals and we had three tonight. It was a very good performance against a really good side," Eastern Florida State College men's soccer coach Oliver Twelvetrees said.

After the game the men's soccer program honored the 11 sophomores who have helped the program to two successful seasons.

"The sophomores have done really well both on the field and in the classroom and each has made their own imprint in one way or another and we are truly appreciative of their efforts," Twelvetrees said.

The Titans are now 8-0 at Orlando Health Stadium which is a program record and have won 11 straight at home. They will wait to see who they will face in the state tournament a week from Saturday at Orlando Health Stadium.