FORT MYERS, Fla. – Stetson scored a pair of first-half goals and never looked back, knocking off Florida Gulf Coast University's men's soccer team, 3-1, in the Eagles' Atlantic Sun Conference opener Saturday night at Pickering Field.
Stetson (4-4, 1-0) – which has won three straight matches – got its first goal at 13:34 when Dominik Topolsky put a shot into the top right corner of the net to give the Hatters a 1-0 lead. The lead grew to 2-0 just past the 20-minute mark, when Valentin Fontaine scored on a shot in the top right corner at 21:01.
FGCU (4-4-2, 0-1) got a goal back just before halftime to cut the Stetson lead to 2-1 at the break. At 42:34,
Pedro Arcoverde took a pass from
Edson Murguia and scored in the bottom left corner of the net for his second goal of the season, getting the Eagles back to within a goal.
Stetson outshot FGCU, 7-5, in the first half, including 4-1 in shots on goal. The Hatters also had five corner kicks to the Eagles' three in the opening 45 minutes.
Despite scoring the goal just before halftime, it was the Hatters who found the back of the net next. At 60:39, Daniel Makowem took a pass from Topolsky and scored on a left-footed shot into the top right corner, giving Stetson a 3-1 lead. FGCU tried to cut into the Hatters' advantage over the final half hour of the match, but was unable to score again, stopping the Eagles' run of just one loss in their last six matches (3-1-2).
For the match, both teams had 13 shots, with seven of Stetson's shots being on goal compared to five for FGCU. Stetson had nine corner kicks to six for FGCU and the teams combined for 25 fouls (14 on FGCU, 11 on Stetson). Seven yellow cards were shown in the match, four on Stetson and three on FGCU.
Job Choute led FGCU with four shots (one on goal) and
Victor Lopes (three shots) were the only FGCU players with more than one shot on the night.
Oliver Weng made five saves in goal for FGCU in the loss.
FGCU is now off until Oct. 4, when the Eagles travel to Jacksonville to take on North Florida (7-3, 1-0) in another ASUN match. Kickoff at Hodges Stadium is scheduled for 7 p.m. If you can't make it to Jacksonville to support the Eagles in person, you can still catch all the action, as the match will be streamed on ESPN+.
For the first time in program history, FGCU is offering fall
season tickets for its soccer programs, with packages starting at $60. Fans who purchase season tickets for either the men's or women's soccer teams will receive a season ticket combo for both programs. For mini-plan options, click
here. For single-game tickets, click
here. Single-game tickets start at just $12.
