Tampa Drops Home Opener for Fourth Straight Loss

TAMPA, Fla. - The No. 22 University of Tampa men's soccer team remained winless on the season after falling 4-1 to Florida Memorial University in its home opener on Sunday at Pepin Stadium. The loss marks the Spartans' fourth of the season while the Lions improve to 2-1.

Florida Memorial struck first, scoring an unassisted goal in the sixth minute of the match. The Lions would go on to net one more in the first half off the foot of Guido Peralta.

After FMU notched its third goal of the contest, Tampa would counter with one of its own at the 53 minute mark. Senior midfielder Ryan Griffin tallied his first goal of the season while John Reddick collected the assist.

With just over a minute remaining in the contest, the Lions put the match out of reach as they put one past Tampa goalkeeper David Niepel for their fourth and final goal.

Niepel played all 90 minutes and recorded one save. The match proved to be of physical nature as five yellow cards were issued, four of which went to FMU.

The Spartans have lost four straight for the first time since 2006 when they dropped six in a row.

Tampa head coach Adrian Bush said following the game, "We have one week to get it right as we have the biggest week of soccer in University of Tampa men's soccer history starting September 17th at West Florida."

"With the horrible start, we are still only 0-2 in the region with ten more region games to play, which will determine our fate for the NCAA tournament. We have good players and I still believe in this team - the coaches can't want it more than the players. It's as simple as that."

The Spartans are set to get back on the road as they travel to Pensacola to face West Florida on Saturday at 8 p.m. where they hope to pick up their first win of the 2011 campaign. Live stats will be available through www.tampaspartans.com.

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