Men’s soccer defeats Old Dominion, advances to semifinals

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17 

After being held scoreless in their last three regular season matches, the FIU men’s soccer team needed to rediscover their scoring touch, if they wanted to get out of the first round of the Conference USA Championship tournament.

Luckily for FIU, they found it just in time.

Four different Panthers found the back of the net in a 4-2 victory over the Old Dominion Monarchs Nov. 11 in Charlotte, N.C. to help the Panthers advance to the conference semifinals, where they will take on No. 1 seed Kentucky on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

The Panthers, the No. 5 seed in the tournament, jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the contest with goals from Paul Marie in the 12^th minute and regular season goals leader Luis Betancur in the 26^th minute.

But Old Dominion’s Josue Henriquez cut the lead in half with a goal in the 33^rd minute and then, early in the second half, Ryan Condotta scored on a penalty kick to tie the game at 2-2.

After a tense half hour without a goal, FIU’s Patrick Lopez delivered a perfect pass into the box for Daniel Gonzalez, who knocked in a header past the goalkeeper in the 79^th minute in the game-winning goal.

Jamar Champion-Hinds added an insurance goal in the 82^nd minute to seal the game for the Panthers.

The Panthers hope to carry the momentum into Friday’s match against the Wildcats with a chance to compete in the championship final. FIU lost 1-0 to Kentucky, now ranked No. 11 in the nation, on the road to close out the regular season on Nov. 7.

 For more information on FIU men’s soccer, go to FIUSports.com.