BOX SCORE

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern men’s soccer team (3-6-1, 1-4-0 SSC) lost to the Eckerd Tritons (7-3-1, 2-1-1 SSC) for the third time in program history Wednesday night in St. Petersburg, Fla., 2-1.

Halil Tozar (Fr., Berlin, Germany) scored his team’s only goal of the match in the 53rd minute. With NSU down 1-0, Tozar scored with the ball bouncing around the box. On the ground, the freshman striker made a heads up play by getting a foot on the ball and sending it into the back of the net. It was his team-high third goal of the season.

The Tritons controlled the first half as they rarely allowed the Sharks to get into an offensive rhythm. The Sharks only took one shot in the first half, a great shot-on-goal by Lucas Zeiler (Homer Glen, Ill.) that needed a diving save by Eckerd goalkeeper Toni Virtanen. Eckerd got on the board first in the 19th minute when Anthony Arico scored on a sliding shot in the box.

NSU came out looking like a different team in the second half as they controlled the time of possession and were able to get into the flow of offense. They took six second-half shots with half of them on target. With the ball bouncing around in the box, Tozar tied the game to fully swing momentum in the Sharks’ favor.

Despite the momentum shift, Eckerd would score the game-winner in the 77th minute when Nick Murawski placed a perfect header into the net off a free kick. Despite the goal, the Sharks continued to battle down the stretch and had several chances to score in the final minutes of the match.

With less than 10 minutes remaining, Matthew Ilter (So., Lake Mary, Fla.) played a great ball into the box to Tozar but his shot went just wide. Just a minute later, Tozar played a great pass across the box to a wide open Eric Tarmey (Fr., Pompano Beach, Fla.) who’s sliding shot went over the crossbar. With 30 seconds left, Tozar once again had the ball in the box but could not get around his defenders before losing the ball as the clock ticked down to zero.

Andrea Giombetti (Fr., Rome, Italy) recorded three saves in his third straight start.

The Sharks will return home this Sunday, Oct. 9 to take on Christian Brothers at the NSU Soccer Complex at 1 p.m.

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