Box Score
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Eckerd College men's soccer program left it all on the field and for the second straight night, a double-overtime tie was produced at the Turley Athletic Complex against Florida Tech, 1-1.
The women's programs dueled their way to a scoreless tie on Tuesday evening as fans who attended both matches were treated to a combined 220 minutes of soccer in the past 48 hours.
This time, the Tritons (2-3-1, 0-1-1 SSC) earned their first points in the Sunshine State Conference standings against the streaking Panthers (4-0-2, 1-0-1 SSC) while playing the final 24 minutes and change shorthanded.
As rain began to descend at the start of overtime, Eckerd responded and made its defensive stand as senior
Turner Humphries was dismissed late in the second half in the 85th minute with his second yellow card.
But before entering extra play, both teams had their chances to play spoiler late in regulation with FT holding the 11-on-10 advantage.
Florida Tech's John Bocinsky left the crowd holding its breath after his potential game-winning shot blasted off the post with exactly one minute remaining in regulation.
EC had a similar opportunity in the waning moments before overtime as sophomore
Seb Marley broke free but was called offsides.
Battle-tested senior captain
Matt Duffy converted a penalty kick in the 58th minute, his first goal of the year, to even the score at 1-1 as he scored against one of his good friends, Florida Tech goalkeeper Brentton Muhammad.
Duffy countered the opening salvo fired by Florida Tech's Antoine Aupiais, who found a seam in the back line of the Eckerd defense in the first half at the 31:33 mark. He was visibly hobbled by a few violent collisions on the field, but still managed to mobilize the troops.
“Soccer is one of those games where you need team spirit no matter how many men are on the field,” Duffy said afterwards. “Against Rollins (College), we were down to nine men and we crumbled. This time, we responded better and came away with the draw against a good Florida Tech team.”
EC junior goalkeeper
Toni Virtanen left the field just 11 minutes into the match with an undisclosed injury and senior netminder
Andrew Hoffer filled in admirably, making three saves to give the Tritons a fighting chance.
Florida Tech may have outshot Eckerd, 16-6, but the Tritons' attempts against Muhammad were as memorable as any sequence on the field.
Sophomore
Nick Murawski made things happen with a sliding cross that sophomore
Matt Dolan nearly put into the net with a slide of his own.
Freshman
Adam Stephany and Murawski had a slick series of one-timed passes into the box before a Humphries left-footed attempt was high of the net. Muhammad also vacated his spot in net to charge a ball and head it out of bounds.
The Tritons tried to capitalize with a quick throw-in, but Florida Tech managed to recover just in time.
The Tritons will return to their home turf on Saturday night, hosting Nova Southeastern University in a non-conference affair with a scheduled start time of 7:30 p.m.
Live stats, video/audio will be streamed on EckerdTritons.com.
