Sports Lowdown

Keira McCarthy - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography Keira McCarthy scored the only goal of the game Wednesday, giving her team a very important 1-0 win over Rollins in a Sunshine State Conference women's soccer match at Rick Stottler Field.   The Panthers dominated statistically, but Rollins goalie Kelly Rowswell kept her team in the game, making eight saves. The one save she couldn't make was off the foot of McCarthy, who didn't get all of the ball, but enough to just have it trickle over the goal line, with 20:12 to go in regulation. Brie Heitz was given the assist on the goal.   With the victory, the Panthers improve to 7-6-2 overall and move to .500 in the conference with a 4-4-1 record. They are now back in contention for a spot in the Sunshine State Conference tournament, which starts next Tuesday.   Florida Tech took 12 shots in a scoreless first half, with five of them saved by Rowswell. On the other side, Florida Tech goalie Karlyn Prisc...

Photo credit: James Ragan Photography Following their big win over then 18th ranked West Alabama last Saturday, Florida Tech head coach Steve Englehart took a little time to enjoy his teams' victory, but it wasn't long before he was back to the coaching grind.   “It was good that it was a day game because then you had the rest of the day to savor it,” he said. “Went home, hung out with the family and had some friends over. It was fun, but back to work on Sunday to start preparing for a good Valdosta State team, who had a good win as well.”   Valdosta is coming off a 34-13 win over Delta State that saw the Blazers force four turnovers and scoring on all of them, to the tune of three touchdowns and a field goal.   “That was a huge win for them,” Englehart said. “They lost a close one early in the year to Albany State, they lost a close one to North AL and they lost to West Georgia. They're getting back on track now, won a couple in a row and they feel li...

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 ...

Karlyn Prisco - Photo credit: James Ragan Miranda Gonzalez scored the only goal of the night in the 39th minute on Saturday, giving her Tampa Spartans a 1-0 win over Florida Tech in a Sunshine State women's soccer matchup.   Brie Heitz , Kerel Morris , Karlyn Prisco , Elin Svensson , Mary Watson and  Aubri Williamson were all honored in a pregame ceremony. They will have one more regular season home game before saying goodbye to the Florida Tech fans for good.   Prisco gave up the first half goal, but she kept her team in it, making a couple key saves before that, including a diving save on an Emily Cady shot in the 24th minute and a follow-up save on Gonzalez, six seconds later. She finished the night with six saves overall. She now has 68 saves, good for third place in the Sunshine State Conference.   The Panthers best chance of the half came at the 27:54 mark when Monica Zabian took free-kick and launched it over the Tampa wall, but ...

Mark Cato - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography The Florida Tech Panthers scored a huge upset Saturday, beating the #18 West Alabama Tigers 41-39 in a Gulf South Conference contest. It was the first loss for West Alabama in the conference.   “We knew we were gonna get their best shot through the entire game,” said Panthers quarterback Mark Cato . “We just had to stay tough through it and convert on the gameplan that we had and everything would come to fruition.”   “We didn't play clean but we played hard,” said Florida Tech head coach Steve Englehart after the game. “This was a great team victory.”   This game went back-and-forth throughout, with Cato going 22-for-40 throwing for 345 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for the game-winning touchdown, an 11-yard scamper, with 51 seconds left. This followed a 325-yard performance from Cato last week, against North Greenville .   Statistically, this game couldn't have been more even and it p...

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 Florida Tech Panthers women's soccer team got a much-needed road win on Wednesday, beating Lynn 1-0 at Bobby Campbell Stadium in Boca Raton.   The Panthers (6-5-2, 3-3-1 (SSC) had 29 shots and kept Lynn goaltender Alexa Downie on her toes all night, as she made seven big saves in the first half and four more in the second half. The one save she couldn't make was at the 56:43 mark, when Elin Svensson connected with Keira McCarthy , in a great pass. McCarthy ripped a shot from 10 yards out and put the Panthers up, 1-0.   This was an up-and-down game with both teams getting some early chances. The Fighting Knights had two free-kicks and a corner in the first four minutes but were unable to get a shot on goal. Panthers goalie Karlyn Prisco only made one save in that first half.   The Panthers definitely had the better of the chances in the first 45, as Downie had to make a couple big saves, tipping the ball over the crossbar and a nice diving save at t...

Sekai Lindsay - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography After breaking their two-game losing streak last Saturday with a 42-31 win over North Greenville last week, the Panthers were in good spirits on Wednesday, as they gear up for a showdown with the best team in the Gulf South Conference on Saturday, in West Alabama.   In this edition of Gridiron Lowdown Panthers coach Steve Englehart summed up the win over North Greenville and talked about the task ahead of his team this weekend.   “Obviously it was huge for us to kind of get our confidence back and go on the road and beat a good football team, a team that beat us in the playoffs last year in the playoffs. I thought we did a lot of really good things on offense, got the ball downfield a lot and had a lot of big explosion plays and that loosened the North Greenville defense up for us to run the ball.”   The Panthers (4-3, 2-2 GSC) scored just seven points in the fourth quarter, but they controlled ...

Adonis Davis #48 - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography Quarterback Mark Cato and defensive lineman Adonis Davis were key players in the Panthers 42-31 victory at North Greenville on Saturday. Monday, the Gulf South Conference recognized their efforts, naming them the Offensive and Defensive Player of the week, respectively.   Cato finished 20-of-33 for 325 yards and four passing touchdowns. He carried the ball seven times for just 11 yards, but added a rushing touchdown in the second quarter, a one-yard scamper that finished off an 11-play, 81-yard drive.   Through six games, Cato has completed 78-of-133 passes (58.6%) for 1,026 yards. He has eight touchdowns and six interceptions and is averaging 171 yards a game through the air.   This is Cato's second Offensive Player of the Week conference award. He last won the award the week of September 8, 2014.   Davis did his part on defense, as he has all season long. He had a team-high eight ta...

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...

The Florida Tech women's soccer team suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 loss Saturday night, as Molly Sharpe put one in the upper right corner of the net with 3:07 left in overtime, sending Barry to a Sunshine State Conference home victory.   This game was scoreless through 90 minutes, despite the Buccaneers controlling much of the possession. The loss sends the Panthers to 5-5-2 overall and 2-3-1 in the conference. They have now lost two in a row.   Barry dominated possession for much of the first half, as Florida Tech goaltender Karlyn Prisco was forced to make seven saves. Barry outshot the Panthers 13-5 over the first 45 minutes and had four corners to the Panthers two. Maria Munoz had two shots to lead FIT.   The Panthers got an early corner in the second half, but were closed down. Moments later, Barry goalkeeper Melanie Ziegner made a great save with her foot as she was falling backward on a shot by Munoz. That was the best chance Florida Tech would hav...

Antwuan Haynes - Photo Credit: James Ragan Photography The Florida Tech Panthers overcame a tough third quarter on Saturday, taking down the North Greenville Crusaders 42-31 and snapping a two-game losing streak in the process.   “I really loved the execution of our offense and what they did,” said Panthers head coach Steve Englehart in his postgame interview with Jerry Durney and Paul Van Scott on WFIT Radio.  “Defense played well too, they shut 'em down when they needed to shut 'em down. Whatever the yards and points are I don't care,  we win the football game. I don't care if we win 2-0 or 49-48, it was a great team win.”   Big offensive efforts from quarterback Mark Cato , who completed 20-of-33 passes for 325 yards and four touchdowns and Antwuan Haynes who carried 22 times for 155 yards and a touchdown, got the Panthers a big win over a team that ended their season last year in the first round of the playoffs.   After a tough fi...