Men's soccer team posts shutout, advances to Southeast District final
The Eastern Florida State College men's soccer team advanced to the championship of the Southeast District Tournament Saturday afternoon at Orlando Health Stadium on the Melbourne campus.
The third-ranked Titans posted a 7-0 victory against Southern Union State College to improve to 14-1 on the season. They will play host Richard Bland College next Saturday in the Southeast District Final for a spot in the NJCAA Division I National Tournament.
On Saturday the Titans showcased a bit of everything in the win as seven different players scored in the contest.
Daniele Verdirosi got things started as Jack Nelson made a nice cross to Luc Achermann-Stanfield who found a sprinting Verdirosi on the other side of the field. Verdirosi took the pass in stride and hit a strike past Southern Union State goalkeeper James Ashcroft and it was 1-0 with 22 minutes, 55 seconds remaining in the first half.
Eight minutes later Christoph Steinleitner hit a perfect cross back on a corner kick and Luc Lenz headed it into the back of the net to make it 2-0.
Achermann-Stanfield opened the scoring in the second half on a free kick just outside the box, hitting a strike into the back of the net for a 3-0 lead.
It looked as if the Bison would cut into the score but goalkeeper Kodai Tsuzuki made a great diving save to keep the shutout intact.
Mukisa Emmanuel would get in on the scoring with 18:57 remaining on a pass from Achermann-Stanfield.
Takuma Kiuchi scored his first goal of the season with 8:44 remaining and then less than a minute later Will Mendosa would find the back of the net. Nelson rounded out the scoring with 4:14 remaining as the Titans would post the win.
"It was definitely something we talked about, we have leaked some goals when we have scored a lot so to score a lot of goals and not concede and to use our whole team is fantastic," Eastern Florida State College men's soccer coach Adam Butler said. "He made a fantastic save, he didn't have to make a load of them which is a credit to the guys in front of him. When we needed him, he made an unbelievable save."
It was Tsuzuki's seventh shutout of the season.
