LAKELAND, Fla. – Goals from
Victor Cavalcante and
Arthur Bello in an 11-minute span in the second half sealed a 3-1 men's soccer victory over Ave Maria University this afternoon at the SEU Soccer Complex.
Tied at 1-1 after the first 45 minutes, Cavalcante sent the ball into the net from outside the box for what would turn out to be the game winner at the 71:22 mark. The Fire kept the heat on, and only 10:53 later, and Bello collected an errant pass and slotted it into the bottom corner of the goal to make it 3-1. The SEU defense held Ave Maria without a second-half shot and none over the final 66:02 of action.
Fire goalie
Henrique Cavalini faced two shots in the 90 minutes in net. He stopped a Ave Maria header at 8:54 as his lone save.
On the third shot of the day,
Colton Eliasen put the Fire on the scoreboard with only 1:51 gone. He took a cross from
Murilo Ramos and scored for a 1-0 lead. Ave Maria tied the game with a header at 23:58.
With the victory, Southeastern posted its third win in a row and took its season mark to 3-1-1 and 1-0 in The Sun Conference play. The Fire ran its win streak over the Gyrenes (1-3-1) to eight in a row and a perfect 12-0 record in Lakeland.
The Fire will have a few days to prepare for its next conference battle on Wednesday morning, as they travel to West Palm Beach to face No. 18 Keiser University. Kickoff is at 11 a.m.
