FGCU M. Soc @ Lipscomb Recap

The FGCU men's soccer team (4-3-1, 1-1 ASUN) four-game unbeaten streak came to close Saturday night as the Eagles fell to Lipscomb (2-7-0, 1-1 ASUN), 3-2. With the loss, the Eagles are now 9-5-1 against the Bison.

"Credit to Lipscomb, they had a deserved lead, then lost momentum in the game, but came back and finished stronger than we did," said head coach Jesse Cormier. "We're disappointed in our ability to get a complete performance in a key conference game. We'll learn from it provide more early energy and quality while maintaining the high standards we expect from ourselves in all phases of the game."

Trailing 1-0, junior Shak Adams  showed off his speed taking his defender one on one down the left side of the pitch as his cross into the box found sophomore Chris Clement on the far post for the one-time strike in the 35th minute. It was the Eagles first shot on goal and despite trailing 7-3 in shots at the half, they would strike just under 20 minutes into the second period.

Following a foul, Clement sailed a ball into the five-yard box from about 30 yards. As the Lipscomb keeper came off his line, the ball was mishandled and found the foot of junior Joao Burti for the score in the 63rd minute – his second of the year.

As the Eagles held a 2-1 edge, the Bisons continued to press and found an equalizer of their own in the 77th minute off the right foot of senior Ryan Birchfield from inside the penalty area. It would take just five minutes before Lipscomb struck again, as freshman Daniel Zapata gave the home side the lead and the game-winner.

It’s really exciting for us to get this victory,” sophomore Ben Locke said, who scored the opening goal. “We’ve been working hard for a long time and a lot of things this season have not gone our way, so it was important for us to get a result where we felt we deserved it.

“Most of the losses we’ve had this season, we came away from it feeling like we should have won. It was just a big win for us.”

Redshirt sophomore Gustavo Vasconcelos produced six saves in the losing effort.