Jacksonville University issued the following announcement on Oct. 19.
Jacksonville's men's soccer team (3-9-0, 2-3-0 ASUN) put up an all-around battle against Mercer (6-6-1, 2-1-1 SOCON), but just fell short after the Bears held onto its 1-0 lead to escape with the win. Despite the tough loss, Eduardo Thome earned a season-high of saves with four on the night in his second start of the season.
Both teams proved to have a tough defense to break through, as the first nine minutes of action consisted of the ball evenly traveling across the field. At the 10 minute mark, Trey Demps took the first shot for the Dolphins, but it would land right into the hands of the Bears' goalkeeper. Mercer took advantage of the next possession to attempt its first shot, but it was saved by Thome. Two minutes later, the Bears offense began to pick up speed and back-to-back shots were attempted by Kadeem Agard. However, the ball would just scrape the outside of the goalpost both times.
At the 18 minute mark Olivier Correa and Josh Moreira pursued the goal, but just missed the inside of the net. Through the next 20 minutes of play, the teams would fall back into the quiet pattern the contest began with. Mercer broke the silence in the last five minutes of the half after taking two more shot attempts, one of which would tally another save for Thome. After a huge battle on defense, the teams headed into the locker room tied at zero.
Jacksonville returned to the field ready to pick up where it left off. Two minutes into the second half, Mohamed Soumah took his first shot attempt for the Dolphins, which would be out on the right side of the goal. A few minutes later, the Bears took control on offense to launch the ball past Thome to score. Mercer made its way onto the board first with a 1-0 lead.
It became a back-and-forth affair as each team managed to rattle off several shots across a 10 minute span. The Bears made three shot attempts to the Dolphins two, but the first two attempts allowed Thome to record his third and fourth saves. JU began to press harder towards the end of the period to try and tie the game. Cao Chaves and Nil Ringstrand each tried to sneak the ball past the goalkeeper, but were unsuccessful. As the clock ran down, the solid Mercer defense led to the Bears escaping with the close victory.
Up next, the Dolphins return home this Saturday Oct 23, for the last time of the 2021 campaign to compete against conference opponent Lipscomb. The evening will serve as senior night, with kickoff slated for 7:00 p.m. Fans are encouraged to arrive early for the on-field presentation.
Original source can be found here.
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