Clinton, Miss. —The Mississippi College Men's soccer team fell 1-0 in their season opener to Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Thursday night (Sept. 2). The Choctaws fall to 0-1 (0-0 GSC) while Nova Southeastern opens up the year 1-0 (0-0 SSC). The Choctaws will return to action Saturday night.

It was a scoreless first half with each team getting some chances, but neither being able to find the back of the net. The Nova Southeastern Sharks outshot MC 7-3 in the first half, but MC Goalkeeper Alejandro Chavarria made some big saves to keep NSU off the board.

Nova Southeastern got their goal early in the 2nd half as Nick Brisevac scored for the Sharks off of a deflection in the 52nd minute. Chavarria made a save, but the ball fell for Brisevac as he scored the deciding goal in the match. Not long after the goal, Nova Southeastern went down to 10 men as they had a player sent off with a red card in the 53rd minute.

With the man advantage MC made a big push late, but was unable to get the equalizer. The Choctaws had 6 shots in the final 24 minutes, including 2 fantastic chances in the final moments on a header from Soane Deminguet Folituu and a curler from Gonzalo Carrasco. 

Overall, the Choctaws were outshot 11-9 by the Sharks, but each team put 5 shots on goal. MC newcomer Noah Wagner led the way for MC with 3 shots (all were on goal). Pedro Cortes also added 2 shots.

The Choctaws will make the short trip from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach, Fla. on Saturday to take on the Sailfish of Palm Beach Atlantic. The match will start at 6:00 pm  Saturday evening. The Sailfish opened their season on Thursday night as well as they knocked off Flagler College 4-1.