Tampa Secures Victory in Home Opener

TAMPA, Fla. – The University of Tampa men's soccer team earns second victory of the season in home opener.

INSIDE THE MATCHUP:

Final Score: Tampa 2, Clayton State 1

Records: Tampa 2-1-0, Clayton State 1-1-1

Location: Pepin Stadium | Tampa, Fla.

All-time series: The Spartans hold an 9-3-2 lead over the Lakers in the overall series.

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HOW IT HAPPENED:

FIRST HALF: The match began with the Spartans creating chances early, putting pressure on the Lakers' goalkeeper. Behind shots from Pablo Marques and Theo Maye, Tampa spent most of the first ten minutes in the attacking third. The Lakers had a chance of their own in the 24^th minute, but goalkeeper Alex Hare made a jumping save to keep them off the board. The teams would head into halftime knotted at zero.

Score: 0-0 Tie

SECOND HALF: The second half opened with Maye netting the first goal of the match off a pass from Alex Dollard. Just thirteen minutes later, Viggo Svedin found Rodrigo Lopes in front of the net to build the Tampa lead to two. Soon after, Clayton State netted their first of the match to cut Tampa's lead back down to one. However, the Spartans' back-to-back goals proved too much for the Lakers to handle.

Final: 2-1 Tampa

INSIDE THE STATS:

• Alex Hare started in goal for the Spartans, recording 10 saves.
• Tarek Ghamraoui and Luca Bergmann played the full 90 minutes.
• Six Spartans recorded shots on goal; Lopes, Maye, Marques, Leonard Bogeskär, Zachary Welch, and Juancarlos Rodriguez.

UP NEXT: The Spartans go back on the road on Tuesday as they travel to take on Flagler at 6:00p.m.