SAINT LEO, Fla. (Men's Soccer) – Florida Tech picked up a key Sunshine State Conference road victory on Wednesday, defeating Saint Leo 2-1 to move to 4-0-1 and 2-0 in SSC play.
The Panthers wasted absolutely no time in getting on the board as
Stian Tsesmetsis put away a corner kick by
Josh Thomas, beating SLU keeper Conor McElhinney to put FIT up 1-0.
Just over five minutes following the halftime break,
Evan Enders added some insurance for the Panthers, netting his team-best fourth goal of the season off a
Brandon Smalley assist.
That goal would come in handy as the Lions' Keisuke Ohata scored in the 73
rd minute to draw the FIT lead back down to one, breathing some life into the Saint Leo offense.
After
Jack Turnbull was shown his second yellow card of the match and was sent off with a red, the Panthers had to weather a late Saint Leo push. The Lions came within inches of knotting the game when Marcelo Casas' header struck the crossbar but in the end the Panthers reigned supreme.
Although the Lions outshot FIT 16-12 in the contest, the Panthers proved to be more accurate, putting nine shots on goal to SLU's seven. Luca Campinini never broke through but peppered the Saint Leo net with three shots on target.
The Panthers return home on Saturday, hosting another pivotal SSC contest against No. 22 Rollins at 7 p.m. ET at Rick Stottler Field. Links to live coverage will be available at FloridaTechSports.com.
