Michael Parsons, Eastern Florida State College, contributed to this article

MELBOURNE, Fla. (October 29, 2022) - Fittingly, the third and deciding match between Daytona State College and Eastern Florida State College, which was for the right to be Region 8 Champions, went to penalty kicks.

The teams split the first two regular season meetings, which meant Saturday's rubber match was for the Region 8 Championship and the right to advance to the NJCAA Southeast District Championship Match. 

After battling to a 1-all tie at the end of regulation, two overtime periods still yielded a deadlock, sending the de facto Region 8 Championship Match to penalty kicks, where Daytona State outlasted its rival, 5-3.

After three rounds of penalty kicks, the teams remained tied but Daytona State goalkeeper William Diaz guessed right on Junior Smith's strike, giving the Falcons a 5-3 edge in PKs and the Region 8 Conference title.

Eastern Florida State College got on the board first in the game as Jaidon Seldon found an open Jack Nelson nine minutes into the match. Nelson buried the Seldon cross for his 12th goal of the season.

The Titans would remain out front into halftime but less than a minute into the second half Daytona State College's Lisandro Molina hit a nice shot to tie the game 1-1.

In the first overtime, the Titans had one of the best chances to sneak out a win as Smith hit a nice through ball to Rolando Onu who broke for the net. Diaz came out and the two collided and Diaz got a piece of Onu's shot, sending it wide of the net.

Less than two minutes later it was Daytona's turn as Kevin Kelly hit a rocket to the corner but backup goalkeeper Kodai Tsuzuki made the save to send it to the second overtime.

The game had 36 fouls and saw one red card and nine yellow cards.

Daytona State will travel to Petersburg, Va., for a noon kickoff against Richard Bland (Va.) College on Saturday, November 5.