The past few weeks have been tough for the men’s soccer team. In the heart of conference play, the Spartans needed as many points as humanly possible.
Tampa played excellent as they marched their way to a third consecutive win, beating Florida Southern by a score of 3-1.
Freshman Bay Downing put the Spartans on board first with an excellent goal in the twenty-second minute. Right after halftime, the Spartans struck again after a goal by junior Chris Campbell.
With the win in sight, the Spartans added an insurance goal from a penalty kick in the seventy-first minute by freshman Monty Berrow.
After the win, things started to fall apart for the Spartans. The team traveled to Lynn to open up Sunshine State Conference (SSC) play.
The game was even at the half, until Lynn scored in the fifty-eighth minute. Trying to begin their comeback, the Spartans scored in the eighty-third minute on a shot from inside the box from senior defender Andrew Clare. Lynn answered back one minute later with a goal from Simon Gubisch. The Spartans were unable to come back and fell to Lynn 2-1 in the first Sunshine State Conference game.
Head Coach Adrian Bush of the men’s soccer team said, “I feel the demands of college soccer caught up with us tonight as it was our fourth game in eight days. It showed on the field, and Lynn was a better side on the day.”
The Spartans looked to get back in the win column at Saint Leo. It was a game where defense ruled the match and the Spartans sadly ended up on the losing side once again.
The Spartans defense limited Saint Leo’s scoring opportunities, but in the end the Lions broke through in the eighty-fifth minute.
“This shows that we can play with anyone, and we must continue to grow with each performance,” Bush said.
After playing the previous two games on the road, the Spartans came back home to play Palm Beach Atlantic University.
Clare started the scoring with a goal in the thirty-third minute. Later in the fiftieth minute, the Spartans struck again, with a goal from junior Keith Francisco. Senior midfielder Daniel Barboto scored his first goal of the season in the fifty-seventh minute, as the Spartans took a 3-0 lead. This would ultimately be the match-winning goal, as the Spartans would walk away with a massive win.
Riding the momentum of the last match, the Spartans looked to win again as they hosted Florida Tech.
Still without a win in the Sunshine State Conference, the Spartans looked to gather their first against the second ranked Panthers. In what could only be described as a match of two halves, the first half was not on the Spartans’ side as they were trailing 1-0 by the end of the first half.
The second half was all UT as they outshot the Panthers 12-2. Unfortunately, the Spartans could not find the back of the net and lost by a final score of 1-0.
With an 0-3 record in the Sunshine State Conference, the Spartans tried to get their first conference win of the season at Barry.
In a game that was scoreless through 72 minutes, the Spartans broke through with the first and only goal of the game scored by Berrow which propelled them to their first league win of the season.
“All that matters now is our next game. In this league, you must have amnesia. Tonight is over, we need to start preparation for Wednesday night at Florida Southern,” Bush said.
Ed Kerner can be reached at edward.kerner@spartans.ut.edu