
Spartans Defeated by Tars Despite Second Half Effort
WINTER PARK, Fla. - The University of Tampa (0-5-1, 0-1 SSC) men's soccer team fell 3-0 in its match Tuesday night against No. 2 Rollins College (5-0, 2-0 SSC). The game was the Sunshine State Conference opener for the Spartans.
The first goal of the match came off the foot of Tar Nick Sowers after his first shot was saved by Tampa's freshman goalkeeper Kody Parker. Another two goals were scored in the first half by a pair of Tars at both the 30 and 40 minute marks, respectively. Within the first 45 minutes, Rollins was winning with a score of 3-0. The Spartans failed to come up with a goal of their own.
The trio of goals by the Tars left the Spartans disheartened, yet motivated. At the start of the second half, sophomore goalkeeper David Niepel was put in the net for the Spartans. With Tampa already down three goals, their need to perform in the second half was at a maximum.
It was clear to see that the Spartans came out with a different energy than they had in the first. The team recorded eight shots in the second half, compared to five in the first and held the Tars to only six shots as opposed to the 11 RC had taken in the previous half.
Despite Tampa's greatest efforts to catch up to their opponents, the team could not manage to put a ball in the back of the Tar net.
Head coach Adrian Bush commented on the team's performance by saying, "you can't come out and play one half of soccer against the No. 2 team in the country. They outworked us in every part of the game in the first half and the result showed."
"I'm encouraged by the second half of the match but we can't get to the second half and decide we want to work."
Each Tampa goalkeeper collected three saves in the match.
As far as the next game, Bush said, "We're going to put this out of mind and prepare for FIT."
The Spartans will travel to Melbourne, Fla., on Saturday to face Florida Tech in its second SSC match-up at 4 p.m. Live stats will be available through www.tampaspartans.com.
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