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 ...

Braly Municipal Stadium - Photo Credit: Jerry Durney North Alabama (2-3, 2-2 GSC) made their last Division II meeting against Florida Tech a memorable one on Homecoming Saturday, using 21 third-quarter points to pull away from the Panthers, 30-7. “It was just a horrible third quarter, can't-do anything about it,” said Florida Tech coach Steve Englehart in his post-game interview with Jerry Durney and Paul Van Scott of WFIT Radio. “Told our guys in the locker room you gotta do the little things right from Monday to Friday, you can't just expect to do them on Saturday and we gotta get better.”   On a night when the Panthers won many of the statistical battles handily, defending Gulf South Conference champion North Alabama took advantage of four turnovers, turning that into 20 points and sending the Panthers home with their second straight conference loss.   “Too many bad things happened,” Englehart, said. “Offensively, not really executing, couldn't bloc...

The Florida Tech Panthers and West Alabama Tigers put on an offensive show in their Gulf South Conference meeting on Saturday, with the Tigers coming out on top, 45-35. With the loss, the Panthers will likely have to win all three of their remaining games, to make the playoffs. In our conversation with Panthers head coach Steve Englehart on Thursday, he was adamant that if the Panthers won the turnover battle , they would win the game. Unfortunately, the visitors lost four of their five fumbles, including one on the final play of the third quarter that resulted in a scoop and score for West Alabama. This was an 0ld-fashioned shootout from the start, with the teams combining for 1,147 yards of total offense. The Panthers had 643 yards, setting a school record and Quarterback Mark Cato passed for 502 yards, also a school record. On just about any other day, those numbers would translate into a win, but on this day, the turnovers kept that from happening. “You’re not goi...

The Florida Tech Panthers are gearing up for their Gulf South Conference showdown against West Alabama on Saturday. Sports Lowdown spoke to coach Steve Englehart following Thursday’s practice. After last week’s win over Fort Valley State , Panthers coach Steve Englehart made mention of the fact that it had been a rough couple of weeks, with the loss to West Florida, the after-effects of Hurricane Matthew and some internal things going on with the team. Despite all that, the team rolled to a 48-14 victory, setting a record for points scored in a home game. Thursday, Englehart said that those distractions are behind them.  “We’re focused on the situation and the task at-hand,” he said. “That’s to go on the road to Livingston Alabama, have a great trip and hopefully come out of there with a win. All the focus is on that and I think we have short memories, what’s happened has happened and we’re all focused on this week.” Englehart said Saturday that his team had s...

The Florida Tech Women’s Soccer team finished their weekend with a convincing 4-0 win over West Alabama on Sunday, in Saint Leo. Aubri Williamson led the offensive charge with a goal and an assist on the day. Sunday’s win followed Friday’s 1-0 win over Christian Brothers. Karlyn Prisco got the start in goal for FIT and she was forced into action right away, making a save 35 seconds in. It was the first of only two saves she made in the first half. The offense got on the board early, scoring 6:55 in, off the foot of Taylor Eller . She beat Tigers goalie Issy Foster, with the assist going to Ciera Misner . Eller got in on Foster again 35 seconds later, but her header was saved this time around. Eva Banton , who had earned the only yellow card of the match about 10 minutes earlier, made up for it with a goal at the 35:13 mark, giving the Panthers a 2-0 lead. Eller got another shot off with 46 seconds left in the half, but it went high. With that, the Panthers went ...

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...