Men's soccer team hosts Daytona State in conference opener on WEFS-TV
The Eastern Florida State College men’s soccer team will open the conference season Saturday night against Daytona State College at Orlando Health Stadium on the Melbourne campus
The Eastern Florida State College men's soccer team will open the conference season Saturday night against Daytona State College at Orlando Health Stadium on the Melbourne campus.
Saturday night's matchup of top 15 teams will begin at 7 p.m. and will be shown live on WEFS-TV which is channel 9 or 455 on Spectrum, 68 on DirecTV, 30 on Dish and 68 on AT&T Uverse and online at the EFSC Titans YouTube page..
The No. 1-ranked Titans come into the conference season 6-0 and have scored 37 goals this season as sophomore Mukisa Emmanuel is tied for fourth in the nation with seven goals this season. Teammate Adrian Adrian has scored six goals including a goal in each of the past three games. He is tied for seventh in the nation in goals scored. Sophomore Luc Achermann-Stanfield is leading the nation in assists this season with nine while teammate Joao Loureiro is second with eight.
"We have had to spread the workload, it has been the Titan Way this year, you never know who will be injured this week and so I think that is how this team needs to be," Eastern Florida State College men's soccer coach Adam Butler said. "We don't just have one target but multiple people that can chip in. Didn't have Emmanuel this last weekend and other people stepped in and found the back of the net."
Daytona State College is 3-0-1 on the season and is ranked 13th in the latest NJCAA Division I National Poll. The Falcons are led by Hector Moreno who has also scored six goals this season which is tied for seventh in the nation and has scored 15 goals in four games.
"I think that is the key - who can defend? Historically my teams have not done well at that end, we are normally trying to score more than the other team. It would be nice to put in a title winning performance and win a game with defense," Butler said.
The series has been a close rivalry with the Titans leading the series 10-7-2 and has a two-game win streak in the series.
"I think it is one of those games that anyone can win, everything both teams have done before goes out the window, even your form does," Butler said. "None of that matters in a rivalry game, they score a lot of goals, are incredibly prolific going forward and have a lot of different assets, it is going to be hard game and the test is if we can deal with it."
Admission is free to Saturday's game at Orlando Health Stadium and it is Youth Soccer Night at the stadium. Pop's Chicago Style Eats food truck will be at the stadium Saturday night, offering fans food and drinks.