St. Augustine, Fla. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) men's soccer team traveled to Tampa, FL on Monday and came away with a 2-1 win against #23 ranked University of Tampa.
It was a tale of two halves for the visiting Badgers. During the first period, Tampa controlled most of the game despite the Badgers outshooting Tampa 4-2. The two teams battled until Tampa scratched in the match's first goal in the 40
th minute when Julius Becker scored an unassisted goal to send Tampa into the half with a 1-0 advantage.
The Badgers regrouped at halftime, made some tactical and personnel adjustments and came out firing on all cylinders in the second stanza. The Badgers scored the equalizer in the 55
th minute when
Judah Chapman tallied SHC's first goal of the contest to knot the score at 1 apiece on a rocket from just outside the box into the upper left corner. The two teams played evenly for the next twenty-five minutes before
Matthew Moreno scored the game winner in the 79
th minute by putting the ball past the Spartan keeper after several deflections.
For the match, Spring Hill out shot Tampa 11-9 but gave up 9 corner kicks while taking only 5. However, the tenacious Badger defense held firm throughout the match limiting the number of dangerous chances for Tampa who managed only 4 shots on goal. Goalkeeper
Alessandro Erdelyi played well tending the net as he allowed only 1 goal with 4 saves.
"I am tremendously proud of our team for how hard we competed over the 90 minutes," said Head Coach
Steve Wieczorek. "After waiting through yesterday's rainout, I felt we were a bit sluggish to start today. Tampa was the better team in the first half but we gathered ourselves at halftime and pulled out a vital win against a top 25 opponent on the road."
The Badgers (2-0, 0-0 GSC) will next travel to Pineville, LA to take on Louisiana College in a non-conference match on Thursday, September 6
th at 2:30 p.m weather permitting.
