Women's soccer team wins Southeast District title, punches ticket to National Tournament

The Eastern Florida State College women's soccer team punched their ticket to the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament Saturday afternoon in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

The Titans defeated Gordon State 5-0 in the championship game to advance to the national tournament for the seventh straight season.

"It's hard to believe, it is nice that I am going back to the national tournament in my final year as head coach," Eastern Florida State College women's soccer coach Jeff Carr said. "They played well, I was very pleased with the effort today and we really stepped it up in the second half."

Freshman Aida Illas opened the scoring 10 minutes into the match, dribbling past a defender and hitting a shot past the Gordon State goalkeeper.

Ali Toshes found teammate Morgan Miller with 15 minutes left in the first half to make it 2-0. The Titans dominated possession and had chances to increase the lead but went to halftime up 2-0.

The second half would start the same way the first half ended and five minutes into the second half a penalty was called in the box giving the Titans a penalty kick.

Illas took the kick and buried it to give the Titans a 3-0 lead.

"Lately we have been scoring early and that was huge to be up 2-0 at the half but I told them at halftime we needed another and fortunately we were able to do that," Carr said.

Teyah Lindo and Ebony Wiseman also scored in the second half as the Titans improved to 14-2-1 on the season. The NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament begins Nov. 12 in Foley, Alabama.