Florida Southern Upsets No. 7 Mars Hill

LAKELAND, Fla. - Florida Southern's Ike Hopper scored the game winning goal with 8.2 seconds left in overtime to give the Moccasins a 9-8 victory over no. 7 Mars Hill College Saturday afternoon at Bryant Stadium. With the win Florida Southern improves to 4-5 and 2-1 in Deep South Conference play, while the Lions drop to 5-3 and 1-1 in the DSC.

Hopper scored the game's first goal, but Mars Hill responded with three straight goals taking a 3-1 lead after the opening period.
In the second quarter, Adam Ismaeil scored back-to-back goals to tie the game at 3-3 with 11:46 remaining. Minutes later Jon Freda found Kevin Naslonski for a goal to give the Mocs a 4-3 advantage at the half.

Mars Hill came out of the intermission and tied the game 4-4 on an Eric Benesch goal. Tyler Farmer scored a man-up goal to give the Lions a 5-4 with 10:46 remaining in the third quarter. Freda tied the game as his shot got past the keeper with 9:01 left. The Lions scored one more time take a 6-5 lead after three quarters.

The Moccasins got a spark in the fourth quarter from Stephan Boyle, who scored two straight goals to give the Mocs a 7-6 lead. After back-to-back goals by the Lions, Boyle tied the game 8-8 with his third goal of the contest with 4:29 left. The contest would remain tied through regulations and went into sudden death overtime.

In the extra period, the two teams traded possessions as goalie Andrew Almansberger came up with two big saves for the Mocs. The Mocs got the ball back with 35 seconds left, moved the length of the field and Freda found Hopper for the goal and gave FSC the 9-8 win.

The defense was led by Almansberger's 15 saves and Larry Gress held Mars Hill's Farmer, who is second in NCAA II in points per game, to one point. Boyle finished the game with a hat trick, while Ismaeil and Hopper each added two goals. Freda finished the game with a goal and two assist. Chas LaDue went 16-21 on face offs and picked up four ground balls.

Benesch led Mars Hill with two goals. Dylan Price played 63:52 in goal for MHC and made 14 saves.

MHC will host Lees-McRae College at 4 p.m. on March 23.