University of North Florida
Rollins (exh)
Men's Soccer Falls 5-2 in Final Exhibition
8/23/2011 9:06:00 PM | Men's Soccer
Boxscore
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Senior midfielder Enrique Haeussler scored in the second half as the North Florida Ospreys fell to Rollins, 5-2, on Tuesday in men's soccer action. The Tars recorded a pair of early goals to take an early lead that they would not relinquish as the Ospreys dropped the final exhibition match of the preseason.
“We gifted wrapped the first two goals,” head coach Derek Marinatos stated after the match. “We allowed them to score on us 40 second in. We will address how we warm up and how we come out to make sure we are sharp at the start of the match. We tried to pressure them and just didn't have the right pressure so we gave up a ball behind that led to an early goal. We recovered fine and scored a great goal and almost scored another goal to go up 2-1, but instead we scored to tie it 1-1 and gave up a communication goal. All of that is fixable though. The third goal we gave up our back line learned that if you give the ball away and there is space behind you, you better drop; otherwise you are going to give up breakaways.
“Once we figured that out and we settled down, we played much better in the second half,” Marinatos added. “We scored another good goal and had some chances. At the end of the match we were trying to push numbers forward and see if we couldn't score another goal, and gave up a late goal. I am encouraged from the sense that we competed. Our guys came out in the second half and made it a closer match. We have lot of work to do. You saw that against a very good team that went to the National Finals last year that we still have some things to fix before our match on Saturday. If we can correct some of those things, I think we can start off the season on a good note.”
Rollins used a short cross from the left side of the box to put the ball in the net from about six yards out just 40 seconds into the match to take an early lead. Freshman Mauricio Valderruten scored an equalizer goal four minutes later. Senior Julian Botella sent a ball into the box from 35 yards out and Valderruten volleyed the ball into the top right corner of the net from six yards out.
The tie was short lived as Rollins Rafael Faria netted his second goal of the night to give the Tars a 2-1 advantage. In the 20th minute of the match, Rollins used a one-touch clip from the top of the box over a charging goalie to take a 3-1 lead that the Tars would take into intermission.
In the second half, neither team was able to score unitl the 77th minute of the match. Rollins used a goal off of a rebound from a previous save to take a 4-1 lead. Haeussler took a hard cross from the right half of the box from freshman Casey Caronis and poked the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal to cut the deficit in half, 4-2. The Tars used a late goal with just under 30 seconds remaining to provide the final 5-2 score.
North Florida returns to the field on Saturday, Aug. 27, as the Ospreys begin the 2011 regular season with a match against Georgia Southern. Kickoff of the Derek Marinatos Era is at 7 p.m. at Hodges Stadium.
