Sports Lowdown

Jan Hlavica   - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography The Florida Tech Panthers (9-3, 6-2 SSC) erased a two-goal deficit in the second half Saturday, only to have the Spartans Felipe DeSousa score his second goal of the night with 1:16 remaining in the contest, giving host Tampa a 3-2 victory.   The game-winner was a bookend goal for DeSousa who got the scoring started just 7:55 into the match, giving his team an early 1-0 lead.   Tampa took six shots in that first half, with Florida Tech goalie Chris Page making two saves on three shots on goal. Tampa keeper Jake Richards was only forced to make one save on four Florida Tech shots.   The Spartans (6-3-2, 5-2-2 SSC) got their second goal of the first half off the foot of Viktor Strand with 32:34 having elapsed.   The Panthers stormed back in the second half, taking 12 shots and converting on two of them. Just over 14 minutes into the stanza, Josh Thomas took his third corner in a short ...

Melbourne became upset city on Wednesday, as the Florida Tech Panthers defeated the number eight team in the country, the Lynn Fighting Knights, 2-1.   This was a huge bounce-back win, for the Panthers who were upset by Barry on Saturday, who at the time had one win on the season. The Panthers who were ranked 12th coming into that game, dropped out of the top 25 because of that loss, so Wednesday's win over Lynn was huge.   The game started about 95 minutes late due to rain at Rick Stottler Field, but once things got underway, the Panthers were up to the challenge. The defense pitched a shutout in the first half, only allowing the Fighting Knights one shot and that was not on goal.   Florida Tech (9-2, 6-1 SSC) got on the board 11:55 in when Jan Hlavica took a long-range shot and that Lynn goaltender Alexander Roth looked poised  to bat it over the top of the net, but he couldn't corral it and it snuck in behind him from about 35 yards out. It wa...

The Barry Buccaneers picked up just their second win of the season on Saturday, upsetting Florida Tech 2-1 in a Sunshine State Conference match. The loss snapped the Panthers six-game winning streak and also earned them their first conference loss.   The Panthers (8-2, 5-1 SSC) got a couple shots early, including one by Luca Campanini in the 23rd minute. Campanini played about four more minutes before Brandon Smalley took his spot on the field.   Barry (2-5-2, 2-4-1 SSC) got on the board first when Toby Fura scored in the 34th minute, giving the Buccaneers a 1-0 lead. He beat FIT goalie Christopher Page and gave the visitors the early advantage.   Smalley took a shot high and wide a few moments later, but it didn't take long for him to make an impact, as he found Italo Ramos on a crossing pass and he drilled it into the bottom of the net, past Barry goaltender Marco Sordi. That tied the game 1-1, with 43:16 gone by.   The game remained tied a...

When things are going right, they're going right and the Florida Tech Panthers found that out Saturday when they got a lucky bounce in overtime to beat the Embry-Riddle Eagles in a Sunshine State Conference men's soccer showdown.   With the game tied at one and the game 28 seconds into overtime, Toby Cassidy tried to clear the ball for the Eagles and it ended up hitting Brandon Smalley of the Panthers and bounding past Embry-Riddle netminder Richard Dearle for the game-winning tally.   With the victory, the 24th ranked Panthers notched their fifth straight win and moved to 7-1 overall. They kept their unblemished conference record intact, at 4-0 and improved to 4-0 on the road.   Things didn't look good early, as the Panthers were whistled for a penalty at the 35:31 mark when Daniel Gylfason was taken down in the box. The penalty kick was awarded and Magnus Magnusson made the Panthers pay, as he fired it by Panthers goalie Christopher Page .   ...

The Florida Tech men's soccer season was delayed by mother nature on Saturday, as they waited just over an hour to get their opening game underway. In the end, the wait was worth it, as the Panthers took down Francis Marion Patriots, 4-2 at Rick Stotler Field.   Florida Tech (1-0) erased two one goal deficits in the match and scored three times in the second half, to secure the victory. Per Henrik Nag and Brandon Smalley led the Panthers offensively, posting a goal and an assist each. Evan Enders and Hugo Lopez had the Panthers other tallies.   Although things ended well for the Panthers, they certainly didn't start that way. The Patriots got on the board early, as Levin Sandmann sent an awkward knuckler toward the net that Panthers goalie Chris Page had go through his legs, just 45 seconds into the proceedings.   It took Florida Tech until the 16:53 mark to answer, as Enders took a pass from Nag and buried it into the right corner of the net, tying t...

The Florida Tech Men’s Soccer team moved to 2-0-1 on the season with a 1-0 victory over West Alabama Tigers on Sunday. Evan Enders beat West Alabama goalie Brad Louis with a shot at the 31:26 mark and the Panthers were able to make it hold up. Luca Campanini, who had  one goal last week  in a 1-1 tie with Mississippi College, got an early chance on Sunday, getting a header on goal, that was saved by Louis 2:58 into the game. The next best chance for Florida Tech came with 17:56 gone in the first half, when a West Alabama defender knocked the ball down with his arm, resulting in a penalty kick. Senior forward Adin Kavara, who had never missed a penalty kick in his career took the shot. Louis lunged to his left, guessing right and knocked the shot away, keeping the game scoreless. Jack Turnbull got a shot off against Louis with 27:37 left in the half, but Louis was again up to the task. The Tigers (0-3) managed just one shot in the first half, as the defense took...