Rollins Dashes SSC Tournament Hopes for Tampa

BOCA RATON, Fla. - No. 11 Rollins College (14-3-2) got out to a three-goal lead and held off the No. 19 University of Tampa (10-5-1) men's soccer team for a 3-1 victory in the semifinals of the 2012 Florida Blue Sunshine State Conference tournament on the campus of Lynn University.

"A lot of credit goes to Rollins as they frustrated us all morning," says head coach Adrian Bush. "Every loss hurts, but I'm proud of what our guys have given the program all year."

The Tars struck first as Grant Blackhurst scored an unassisted goal at 27:05, which went down as the lone first-half score. Rollins added to its lead with a pair of second-half goals that both occurred just under seven minutes into the period.

UT's Samoda Johnson cut the Rollins lead to 3-1 as the freshman added a 52nd minute goal from senior Brian Fekete.

SSC Player of the Year Tyler Blackwood led UT with two shots, both on goal, as classmate Naysir Rodrigues was also credited with two shots.

David Niepel finished with two saves in goal for Tampa, who was outshot 14-8 with a slim 5-4 edge for the Tars in shots on goal.

The Spartans will now await word on their NCAA tournament fate as the field will be unveiled Monday. The NCAA South Regional is scheduled for Nov. 9-11 at campus sites to be announced.

Tampa brings an impressive resume to the table as it has defeated three of its five nationally-ranked opponents this year while playing its entire 16-game schedule against NCAA Division II opponents. In its final seven regular-seaosn contests, UT has also outscored its opponents 19-6.

"Now we are playing the waiting game and see if the NCAA committee feels that we are deserving to represent the tournament," states Bush. "I certainly think we are, with the season we have had. We have been in the NSCAA national poll seven of 10 weeks after starting the year unranked. We have played a strength of schedule that ranks amongst the highest in the region, and have beaten quality teams not only in the SSC, but in our region as well. For my players, I hope we get into the NCAA tournament because I know how hard they have worked."

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