Sports Lowdown

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...

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 ...

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...

Brandon Ziarno - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography The Florida Tech Panthers opened their 2017 season on Saturday night, earning their second straight home opener shutout. FIT got contributions from all three phases of the game, en route to a 44-0 drubbing of the Virginia-Lynchburg Dragons. The 44 point margin is the largest in the five-year history of the Panthers. Florida Tech (1-0) took a while to get their legs under them, as they led 10-0 at the half. A 15-yard run by Antwuan Haynes and a 20-yard run by starting quarterback Brandon Ziarno highlighted the Panthers opening drive, which culminated in a 20-yard field goal by Kyle Gullikson . “Offensively we started slow, we didn't do things we needed to do early on,” said Florida Tech coach Steve Englehart. “We were adjusting to what we were seeing on defense and that had something to do with it, but ultimately, we just needed to get going and sped up the tempo a little bit.” The Panthers looked primed to scor...

Photo credit: James Ragan Photography T he Florida Tech Panthers have gone through spring practices, training camp and all the grueling work that goes with it. This Saturday, all that hard work will pay off, as the Panthers open their season at home, against Virginia University of Lynchburg.   “We've had a good camp, a tough camp,” said Florida Tech head coach Steve Englehart. “We've asked a lot of them and you can talk about wins and talk about championships all you want, but what it really comes down to is focusing on the process of getting there. You gotta love the practice if you're on this football team and you gotta love coming out here and try to get better every day and that's what our guys have done.”   Englehart admits that he's not sure if his team is where he wants them, but they are getting there. “We don't know a lot about Lynchburg, but we gotta get out there and play a game and we'll evaluate from there.”   Other than th...

Photo credit: James Ragan Photography With the Spring game just two days away, Sportslowdown.com sat down with Florida Tech Panthers head football coach Steve Englehart, to get his early thoughts on the Panthers 2017 season. With an 8-3 record, including five wins in the Gulf South Conference, the Panthers are coming off their first ever playoff appearance in 2016, the Panthers are primed to make another run through the Gulf South Conference and get back to the postseason in 2017. “Expectations are high as always, you wanna get out there and compete each and every week,” said Englehart. “Hopefully at the end of the season you’re sitting there with a chance to win the conference and go to the playoffs. My expectations haven’t changed from that since we started.” Englehart said from a philosophical standpoint, within the program, not much has changed, but he has added a team seminar to their Friday activities, dealing with character development and leadership develop...