FORT MYERS, Florida (Aug. 29, 2021) - The FIU men's soccer team continued its magical start to the 2021 fall season on Sunday evening in Fort Myers, after grounding the FGCU Eagles with an epic 1-0 golden goal victory in overtime.

With the win, the Panthers' record improved to 2-0 on the young season, while FGCU falls to 0-1 in its home opener.

FIU secured its second-straight clean sheet victory of the season after shutting out No. 13 UCF by a score of 4-0 in Orlando this past Thursday. The road victory against an in-state rival marks the second for FIU in a span of only four days.

"I'm really proud of the boys tonight." said Head Coach Kyle Russell. "We had some really big performances to have two clean sheets in this matter of time. It's a great way to start the season and I think the boys have a lot to prove."

After a lightning delay pushed initial game time back nearly three hours and kept the Panthers cooped up in the visiting locker room, the Blue & Gold finally emerged to kick things off just before 8 p.m.

While the Panthers defeated FGCU by a lone goal, the final score was not reflective of the competition between the two sides as FIU dominated in shot attempts by a tally of 25-7, and earned 12 corner kicks to FGCU's four. The Panthers applied constant pressure on the Eagles' net throughout the contest, firing 13 shots-on-goal to the Eagles two.

"For us this was the first game that's gone to overtime," said Coach Russell, "I don't think  [the match] was deserving to go to into overtime based on the amount of shots we had on goal, and the lopsidedness in regards to the chances that both teams had tonight, but that's the game. Sometimes you have to be patient and wait a little longer than you'd like [to score]. We have a group that can score from anywhere. If our guys up front aren't able to get it in, the guys in the back can make something happen as well. I'm very excited in regards to who we're getting our goals from. We've had five different goal scorers through the last two games, and all of our guys have contributed throughout the preseason."

In the first period, FIU's defense held FGCU to zero shots ongoal and only three total shot attempts. After the break the Eagles managed to place two dangerous shots on frame, but goalkeeper Grant Makela made excellent saves at both the 59 and 67 minute-marks to preserve the shutout for FIU.

The contest between the two in-state rivals was physical and at times even chippy. In the 71st minute, things boiled over for the Eagles when their starting goalkeeper was shown a red card due to an overly aggressive tackle on Matias Barraza outside the 18-yard box.

With things scoreless at the end of regulation, the Panthers advanced to overtime and finally struck gold at the 96th minute, when defender Philip Hildebrandt crossed a high arching ball from the right flank that banged just inside the far post over the outstretched hand of the Eagles' keeper.

"I think we did very well today," said Hildebrandt. "With them being a man down, the coaches asked me to go up the field. I was able to get the ball off the field when I received the pass from David. l just went for it and it got in [the net]. It was well done. I think we have a good group of guys who play well together. We've got some great players and some great center backs, and today we were good defensively."

FIU's performance demonstrated the Panthers' collective ability to adapt tactically to an FGCU squad that plays an entirely different style of football than the UCF side FIU saw four days prior.

"We knew coming into this game it was going to be a lot different of a game compared to UCF," said Russell. "But that's the mark of a good team. We were able to adjust and take away what they wanted to do and serve our style of the game. Credit to the guys. They worked tremendously hard. I told them before this game they were going to have to dig deep and really earn this win because of the short turn-around, their heavy legs, and because of how stylistically different FGCU is from UCF." 

Against the Knights, the Panthers were tasked with defending a very technical and possession-oriented style of offense that aims to break defenses down with persistent passing. In FGCU, the Panthers faced a fast and athletic Eagles group that plays a more direct style of attack, attempting to destroy teams with speed by pushing the ball forward and running in behind the defense.

Despite the tactical differences, FIU remained unified as a group and found a way to pull out another clean sheet victory against a bitter in-state rival that was very determined to defeat FIU.

"We play in a very strong conference," said Coach Russell. "So to be able to start off this season with 15 new guys and beat two top teams like UCF and FGCU, it says a lot about our group and it's going to better prepare us for the week ahead against a VCU team that had excellent results this weekend as well."

The win marked FIU's second consecutive golden goal victory against FGCU in Fort Myers, after David Garcia sunk a game-winning header in the Panthers last road trip to FGCU Soccer Complex back on Oct. 8, 2019.

Backliners Hildebrandt, Garcia, Kareem Riley, Edgar Aguilar, and defensive midfielder Matthias Lavenant all logged a full 90-minutes in the match to help FIU post a clean sheet.

Makela also logged a full 90 between the posts and hauled in two saves to go along with his second shutout of the year

Garcia notched his second assist of the season on the game-winning play. Hildebrandt, Mauro Bravo, and Matias Barraza all logged a game-high three shots-on-goal apiece.

UP NEXT
The Panthers will have five days to prepare before playing their much-anticipated home opener in front of the Blue & Gold faithful next Saturday, Sept. 4, against VCU. Kickoff against the Rams is slated for 7 p.m. ET under the lights at FIU Soccer Stadium.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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