The Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles tied against Mercer on Thursday night, stretching their unbeaten streak to seven games in a row.
Sophomore goalie Danny George played an important role—saving all of the shots that came his way. Forward Santiago Echeverri also looked for different ways to seal the victory, especially the first half of the game.
Both teams played with a similar amount of momentum the first 25 minutes of the match. FGCU had the same number of corner kicks as Mercer throughout the night—six in total. The Eagles shot two of them in a three-minute span. However, none of them resulted in goals.
“It was a typical league game in that it was very hard. They were in desperation mode and we were in a mode that we were pretty confident, but playing at home it was pretty difficult today,” head coach Bob Butehorn said via a press release. “It wasn’t our best effort, but in general it was a good game and I give credit to Mercer.”
The second half continued to show effort from both teams. Junior Xavier Silva had an exceptional left-footed shot that was stopped by Mercer’s goalie Greg Ranjitsingh. Overall, the game had good rhythm coming from the players, and it finally went into overtime.
The Eagles (6-5-2, 4-0-1 Atlantic Sun Conference) continue their journey protecting the nest with a solid season. In fact, the men’s soccer team hasn’t lost a home game in five years during conference play.
FGCU’s next game will be at Stetson University on Saturday. The Eagles will have two more games on the following Saturdays, and they’ll play their last game of the season on Nov. 2 against Jacksonville.