FLORENCE, SC – Despite surrendering an early goal, Francis Marion University responded with three unanswered goals to capture a 3-1 win over Belmont Abbey College on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 19) on Hartzler Field in Conference Carolinas men's soccer play.
The Patriots are riding a five-game winning streak and improve to 6-1-1 overall with a perfect 3-0 mark in conference action. Francis Marion returns to the pitch on Wednesday night (Sept. 23) when it hosts Barton College in a divisional match at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, Belmont Abbey falls to 2-4-2 this season with a 1-4 mark in league play.
The Crusaders got on the board in the opening minutes of the first half after a cross into the box by Zachary Birch hit the far post and found the back of the net, 1-0.
In the 13th minute, graduate student goalkeeper
Vicent Sanchis made an impressive one-on-one save, which catapulted a counterattack for the Patriots. Senior forward
Volkan Celikkol delivered a through ball from behind midfield that was gathered by senior forward
Victor Barón da Silva. He beat the goalkeeper with a shot from 18 yards out into the far-left post for his third goal of the year, 1-1.
Francis Marion would take a 2-1 lead at the 23:59 mark of the first half after graduate student defender
Valentin Fritz hit the post before sophomore
Sebastian Gough scored his first goal of the season off the rebound.
In the second half, the Patriots added an insurance goal in the 60th minute, as senior defender
Esteban Quintero connected on a long pass to fellow senior midfielder
Santiago Sanchez. That opened up a passing lane to junior midfielder
Marc Hernandez, who rocketed a goal into the top left corner of the net, his first goal of the year, 3-1.
Sanchis earned the win between the posts after collecting one save on seven shots faced.
Francis Marion held a 16-7 shot advantage while tallying a significant 10-1 lead in corner kicks.
