Women's soccer team advances to Region 8 Tournament final

The Eastern Florida State College women's soccer team advanced to the Region 8 Tournament final with a win over Broward College at Daytona State College on Thursday afternoon.

The Titans improved to 11-0 on the season with the 6-1 win but the game was much closer as Broward College tested the Titans.

Freshman Francesca Espinoza got the Titans on the board with 21 minutes left in the first half and the Titans went into halftime with the lead.

Teammate Viena Massale made it 2-0 with a nice shot into the back of the net nine minutes into the second half. Four minutes later it was 3-0 as Paula Garrido scored on a penalty kick.

Broward would cut the lead to 3-1 with 23 minutes remaining and came close to making it 3-2 but goalkeeper Kiera Gibson got a hand on the shot and it bounced off the post.

That seemed to spark the Titans as Espinoza scored her second goal and 31 seconds later Aida Illas made it 5-1.

It was the eighth goal of the season for Espinoza who has scored six ties in three games against Broward this season.

"Her energy and her effort, she is like a turbo engine that never stops," Eastern Florida State College women's soccer coach Jeff Carr said. "She is unbelievable, she doesn't get as much credit as she should but she is fantastic and we are fortunate to have her on our team."

Garrido hit a nice chip over the keeper with 16 seconds remaining to make it 6-1.

"It was a scrappy game, we didn't play very well. It was not pretty," Carr said. "Survive and advance this time of year but we didn't play very well at all."

Eastern Florida State College advances to the Region 8 Tournament final on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Daytona State College.