WINTER PARK, Fla. (Men's Soccer) – No. 5 seed Florida Tech men's soccer was dealt a painful loss in the quarterfinals of the Sunshine State Conference Tournament on Tuesday evening as No. 4 seed Rollins scored a pair of goals in the final eight minutes of regulation and defeated the Panthers, 3-2, at Barker Family Stadium.
FIT has now lost four games in a row, and five of its last six, and drops to 9-6 overall. The Tars improve to 10-5-1 and advance to face No. 1 seed Palm Beach Atlantic in the SSC semifinals on Friday at Rinker Athletic Campus in West Palm Beach.
Rollins finished with more shots in the contest, 10-7, while the Panthers had the advantage in corners, 6-2.
Christopher Page recorded four saves in goal for the Crimson and Gray.
The Tars took a 1-0 lead when Ben Grant headed in a Johnny Nartowicz free kick over the outstretched hands of Page in the 16th minute.
Luca Campanini took advantage of some confusion amongst the RC defense in the 28th minute and scored on an empty net to tie the game at 1-1.
Paris Junior Roserie then gave the Panthers their first lead of the game, 2-1, less than eight minutes later as Tars goalkeeper Drew Trautmann was unable to hold on to his shot and the ball squeaked into the back of the net.
It looked as though the Panthers were going to put the game away in the 82nd minute as Roserie beat his defender on the right wing and had a one-on-one opportunity but his attempt was stopped by Trautmann. The Tars countered right off the Trautmann save and Stefan Avram put a cross just in front of the Panther net and it was knocked in for an own goal by
Jan Hlavica to tie the game at 2-2 with 7:32 left on the clock.
Avram struck again just moments later, beating his defender on the right wing and and launching a low shot past Page for the eventual game-winner with just under six minutes to go.
With its SSC title hopes dashed, Florida Tech must now wait and see what pieces fall in the next week and hope its season stays alive with a NCAA Tournament berth.
