A rainy Boca Raton set the scene for an important matchup in the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament. No. 4 seeded FAU hosted rival no. 5 seeded FIU (5-5-6, 3-2-3) in the first round of the American Athletic Conference championship. The winner would go on to face Memphis. After falling to the Owls earlier this season, Florida International earned a key goal in the first half and held on to beat FAU 1-0 to advance to the AAC semifinals.
It took ten minutes before the first shot of the match was seen, but that was enough to find the first goal for the Panthers as Eduardo Mustre scored to give FIU a 1-0 lead in the tenth minute.
The rough play from the last meeting between the two carried over into this one with multiple stoppages of play due to injury. FIU’s attack held up the remainder of the half, but FAU’s defense responded nicely to slow all Panther attacks as at the half FIU had a 1-0 lead.
Coming out of the half the Florida Atlantic (pictures, Angelina LaBelle) were determined to find an equalizer. The Owls found multiple corner attempts after failing to receive an attempt in the first. FAU also found more shot opportunities, but could not find a goal as the season ticked away.
With 15 minutes remaining it seemed that FIU had earned a nail-in-the-coffin goal, but after review, a Panther was offside. For the remainder of the match Florida International had parked the bus. The Owls shots were plentiful in the final minutes, but Nigel Van Haveren of FIU had a masterclass in the box to keep the score 1-0; ending the Owls season.
Florida Atlantic finished the season 7-6-3, and 3-4-1 in AAC play. The Owls led the conference in every offensive statistic while also having six players on the AAC Mens Soccer Honors list including Mamadou Diarra being named the Offensive Player of the Year.
