Spartans and Argonauts Draw After Vicious Battle

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The University of Tampa (0-4-1) men's soccer team showed a valiant effort Saturday night, but departed Pensacola without their first win. The match between regional foes, UT and the University of West Florida Argonauts (3-2-1), ended in a 2-2 tie after a double overtime showdown.

Following a scoreless first half, spirits began to look up for the Spartans in the 50th minute. John Reddick fed the ball to fellow senior and leading scorer Ryan Griffin, who forced it into the back of the Argo net for the game's first goal.

The Argos responded just eight minutes after, with a goal of its own. The match was all tied up at one goal apiece.

Tensions rose shortly after an incident between Griffin and West Florida's goalkeeper in the box at the 59th minute. The keeper was issued a yellow card and Tampa was given a penalty kick.

After a stopped Spartan PK in the first half, relief briefly washed over the UT bench as Griffin put the ball past the goalie to regain the lead.

Eleven minutes later, another PK was issued, this time to West Florida. Tampa's freshman goalkeeper Kody Parker could not stop the hard shot off the foot of UWF's Stephen Munoz.

The match was tied up once again and would reamin so for the rest of regulation time.

After a scoreless first overtime, the two teams headed into a second. At the 108th minute, the Argos prematurely ripped off their shirts in celebration after one of their shots put the ball behind Parker, but the referree whistled offsides and play resumed.

Neither team could come up with the golden goal in the final two minutes of the second OT. The nail-biting battle ended in a tie.

The match marks Tampa's fourth overtime presence in five games.

Head coach Adrian Bush spoke about this by saying, "I don't know if a team in the country has started the year with four overtime games out of five. This week we demanded so much from our team with 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. sessions."

"These players are working so hard. As a coach, that's all you can ask of them and I believe in our team."

To say the game was hard-fought would not accurately portray the intensity that ensued as a total of eight yellow cards were issued amongst the two teams.

The Spartans would end the game with eight shots on goal compared to West Florida's seven.

Parker played the entire 110 minutes and collected five saves in his first start as goalkeeper for Tampa.

Four other Spartans, including juniors Dominic Cutrofello and Brian Fekete, and freshmen Andrew Clare and Rae'shaun Washington, also played every minute of the match. Senior Karl Swan played 106 and the only four minutes he was not on the pitch were the result of an injury.

After the vigorous hour and 50 mintues of play, Bush said, "I am happy with the effort from our team tonight and we give West Florida a lot of credit, they have a very good team."

The Spartans will travel to Winter Park, Fla. to face No. 2 Rollins College at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in its first Sunshine State Conference match of the season.

Live stats will be available through www.tampaspartans.com.

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