LAKELAND, Fla. – The Fire shook off a lackluster 90 minutes, turned it up in overtime, and beat Webber International, 2-1 in The Sun Conference quarterfinals tonight at the SEU soccer complex.
Webber got the better of play in regulation, but SEU saved its best for the end. Following a scoreless first extra period, Nekoloff made the Fire's fourth shot in the second overtime pay off when he blasted the ball into the upper right 90 for the game-winner at 105:35.
After playing the Warrior to a scoreless tie the previous Saturday, SEU made sure there was at least one goal scored early on in the Quarterfinal. On the match's second shot by the home team, Arthur Bello took an errant pass and tapped it into an open goal at the 8:47 mark.
The Fire continued to hold the first-half advantage on a Henrique Cavalini save at 12:42. The Warriors, though, came back and tied the game less than eight minutes later (20:16). Cavalini worked to keep it deadlocked with a pair of saves and the Fire defense blocked two other shots in the final 24:44 of the first half.
The second half was a defensive battle. Cavalini saved Webber shots at both 55:44 and 84:28 with Liam Fisch firing off a SEU shot on goal between them at 67:43.
After a quick Warrior shot in overtime was blocked, the Fire's Pietro Bronzin hit a shot high. Bello saw his shot less than a minute later (93:44) get blocked and a Warrior shot went high after it. As the first overtime horn sounded, Fisch pelted a shot on goal, which was saved, and took the teams to a second bonus period.
Webber again put the first shot on goal in the second overtime and Fisch booted another shot on goal going the other way at 103:28. SEU kept the pressure on with a Edvin Sundstrom header that was blocked and Fisch had another shot blocked before the Nekoloff game-winner.
With the win, SEU advances to The Sun Conference's semifinal round against top seed Kesier University. The two rivals take to the pitch on Monday morning at 11 a.m. in West Palm Beach.
The Fire aim to make the third meeting of the fall be the charm after the top-rated Seahawks took the game in West Palm Beach on September 18 (4-1) before the two teams played to a scoreless tie, 0-0, in Lakeland on October 23.
