The Georgia Southern men’s soccer team had their first home game of the season canceled due to Hurricane Dorian last Friday and fell to No. 18 Florida Gulf Coast on Sunday, 5-1, in their first loss of the season.

FGCU improved to 3-0 with the victory and was led by redshirt-junior defender Thomas Delplace who had a goal and two shots. There were four other FGCU members who each had goals as well, while redshirt-junior goalie Gustavo Vasconcelos held GS scoreless with five saves.

With the unexpected week off, GS had more time to prepare for the ranked FGCU team, who are also Eagles. The GS Eagles were led by junior midfielder Alhaji Tambadu who scored the lone goal at the beginning of the first half. 

GS went down 2-1 before the break and needed a rally as FGCU has been a strong second half team in recent years.

The Eagles allowed three unanswered goals in the second half, though there were valid shot attempts by sophomore midfielder Joshua Deane, freshman forward Asgeir Kristjansson and junior midfielder Aldair Cortes.

“We weren’t at the races today, so it was a pretty disappointing result,” Head Coach John Murphy said in a press release. “The little details at this level are important, so it’s back to the drawing board this week. We will use our time as best we can to prepare for our game this Friday at North Florida.”

The 2-1 team will be back in action on Friday to take on a relatively young North Florida team on the road in Jacksonville.

Amanda Arnold, The George-Anne Sports Editor, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu