PENSACOLA, Fla. – Niall McCabe's hat trick propelled Young Harris College past Florida Southern College 3-1 in a men's soccer match Friday (Sept. 7) afternoon at Brosnahan Park.
The Mountain Lions, who are ranked eighth in the Southeast region poll, improved to 3-0-0, while the Moccasins, who are ranked 10th in the South region, fell to 0-2-1. Young Harris will face No. 17 Rollins College in a 10 a.m. Central time match Sunday (Sept. 9) in Pensacola.
Young Harris, which outshot Florida Southern 20-5, was staked to an early 1-0 lead in the 14th> minute when McCabe, a junior forward from Dublin, Ireland, shot from close range into the right corner of the goal. Alex Rivera set the goal up with a through ball to the left side of the box.
The Mountain Lions made it 2-0 with nine seconds remaining in the half when Kyle Ball collected a loose ball in the box and fed it to McCabe, who converted for the score. McCabe, who has scored four goals and assisted on five others this season to lead the team with 13 points, gave Young Harris a 3-0 advantage with just under 12 minutes remaining in regulation. Sean Morris crossed the ball from the right side to Ilija Ilic, who flicked it to McCabe for the score.
Florida Southern got a late score from Luke Jenner off an assist from Adam Hansjons, but that would be as close as the Mocs would get.
"We outplayed them for most of the 90 minutes," said head coach Mark McKeever. "Niall McCabe was outstanding. He covered every blade of grass and provided quality at the times required. Lewis Hilton and Andreas Pechmann ran the middle of the park in the second half, which allowed us to create attack after attack."
