St. Petersburg, Fla. - The Embry-Riddle men's soccer team suffered their first loss of the season, falling to Sunshine State Conference foe Eckerd 4-0. The Eagles (1-1-1, 0-1-0 SSC) fell behind just under halfway into the first half and were never able to establish a foothold, dropping the conference opener to the Tritons (2-1-2, 1-0-0 SSC).
The Tritons had the first scoring opportunity in the 12th minute, but the shot blazed to the left away from the goal. Â Eckerd had another chance 18 minutes into the first half but again sent the shot past the left post. Â Two minutes later EC finally broke through, scoring just over 20 minutes in to make the score 1-0.
The Eagles had a chance in the 29th minute to tie the score but could not capitalize.
A 44th minute shot came close to tying for ERAU, but it narrowly missed the left side of the goal. Â Eckerd had the better go of it in the first half, totaling 10 shots in the first 45 minutes, to Embry-Riddle's three shots.
A second yellow card for an Eagle nine minutes into the second half forced them to play short-handed the rest of the game, and EC capitalized with a goal 30 seconds later to to go up 2-0.  And just nine minutes later, the hosts increased their lead to 3-0.
And with barely over a minute left, Eckerd added to their lead again, going up 4-0.
Ferriol Caballe i Vila (1-1-1) had four saves in goal.
Gabriel Mentrup led the team with three shots.
In total, Eckerd outshot Embry-Riddle 21-8, also winning the shots on goal battle 11-5.
Next up for ERAU is another road contest, as they will face Georgia Southwestern State on Wednesday, Sept. 20, with kickoff from Hurricane Field in Americus, Georgia set for 7 p.m.
The 2023 Embry-Riddle Men's Soccer season is presented by Radiology Associates.
