The FIU men’s soccer Squad (3-4-0) was able to score two late goals to take care of the Jacksonville Dolphins on Sunday Sept. 22, at the FIU Soccer stadium, 2-0.
“This is our first shutout of the year.” Said Coach Ken Arena. “The last thing that we said before the team went out there, is that we got to get a shutout so that we could take a little pressure off of ourselves to have to comeback”
FIU’s defense responded to coach Arena’s sentiments as redshirt-sophomore goalie Daniel Mion recorded 4 saves in the 1st period. This game marked the first start for Mion on the season.
“I thought we played very well in the first half ” justified Arena. “It was a little funky because a couple guys got hurt, it slowed the half down, there were a lot of fouls (17), but I thought we had a couple really good chances to score inside the box that didn’t go in for us. Sometimes you just have to get the first score and that combined with a better defensive effort helped win the game tonight “
The Panthers came out firing in the second period, attempting 15 shots while the Dolphins only attempted 2 shots. FIU also attempted 11 corner kicks and were finally able to connect on one in the 78th minute as Senior Midfielder Gonzalo Frechilla passed it to the 6’3’ Freshman defender Marvin Hezel who was able to head it in for his first career goal.
“The timing was much better.” Thought Hezel. “I had a better feeling when I went up as I headed the ball I was sure it was going in. It was hopefully the beginning, in Germany I scored headers so I really hope I could go on like this, I am happy that I scored my first goal.”
The goal would prove to be the game winner, although FIU was able to add an insurance goal with just eight seconds in regulation on a Colby Burdette goal.
“It was nice to finally get that first goal of the game, if the game would’ve been another 5 or 10 minutes longer we would’ve gotten a couple more. Boasted Arena “Winning gives confidence hopefully this give us a good boost going to play Princeton and Penn next weekend “
FIU will hit the road to take on the Princeton Tigers (1-4-0) Friday, September 27. The game is set to kick-off at 7:00 p.m.
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