The only American Athletic match played on Saturday was between FAU and Charlotte (8-2-5, 3-2-2 AAC). If Florida Atlantic was able to win or draw they would find themselves in the conference tournament. Well, on senior night the Owls decided to not just win, but to dominate the match from start to finish to extend the season to next week.
Talk about starting the match on fire. FAU Senior Noah Kvifte (pictured above, Angelina LaBelle) scored in the 2nd minute from a Mamadou Diarra assist to give the Owls an important early advantage. Two minutes later Sebastian Zettl decided he should join in as an impressive strike outside the penalty area found the bottom left of the goal to give Florida Atlantic a 2-0 lead in four minutes.
To close out the first half Jeremy Montero earned his first goal of the season on his senior night. The Owls had a 3-0 lead going into the half. A dominating performance over a 49ers team that was in search of a bye in the conference tournament.
Charlotte, in search of goals, responded early in the second half. Elias Arsvoll scored the first goal of the match for the 49ers to bring the contest within two: 3-1 FAU.
In the 59th minute FAU responded when a Zettl (pictured below, Angelina LaBelle) free kick found Callum Frogson to give the Owls a 4-1 advantage and Frogson’s first goal as an Owl.
In the 66th minute Kvifte scored his second goal of the night. Aboubacar Traore felt left out from the celebrations as he scored the Owls’ sixth goal of the evening to put the exclamation point on the dominant night for Florida Atlantic in the 72nd minute. The match ended 6-1 as FAU clinched a home date against FIU in the AAC Tournament.
Explosive is the only word to describe the match. Six goals is the most in a match for FAU since last season’s contest against Lipscomb. Charlotte had not allowed more than two goals in a match this season. Overall, Florida Atlantic had not found a victory against Charlotte in 13 matches. A lot of important hurdles were jumped over on the night.
Kvifte led the Owls in goals with five players scoring on the evening. The 49ers led in shots with nine while Florida Atlantic had eight. FAU had seven shots on goal while Charlotte had only three. The Owl’s Francisco Ranieri had two saves and one goal allowed while Charlotte’s Leo Stritter had an evening to forget as he gave up six goals. Traore also tied the FAU season assists record with his one on the evening while two Owls led in the assists column with two.
Florida Atlantic (7-5-3, 3-3-1 AAC) will host Florida International (4-5-6, 2-2-3 AAC) Friday evening. In the first contest between the two this season, FAU stunned the Panthers to find the victory in Miami 2-1. It is the Owls second appearance in the tournament since joining the conference.
