Box Score
MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Eckerd College men's soccer program pressed the reset button on the regular season, opening up the new Sunshine State Conference slate with a dramatic triumph on the road Saturday evening against Florida Tech, 2-1.
With just 16 precious ticks left on the clock in regulation, EC senior midfielder
Daniel Lopez snapped a 1-1 tie in the final moments by scoring the decisive blow before overtime could be started.
Lopez ripped his third goal of the fall after an initial deflection. Reportedly, Lopez' shot blasted off the shin of Florida Tech defender Sam Sawyer and into his own net past Panther netminder Mitch Thorn.
Lopez, who scored for the second match in a row (at the University of Tampa), was effectively credited with the final shot in unassisted form.
The Eckerd defense withstood a flurry of three good looks on net from Florida Tech late in regulation before sophomore forward
Joe Swindell countered on the other end with a shot that was blocked in the final minute of play.
But the end result of Swindell's shot allowed the Tritons to come back quickly down the line and assemble for what turned out to be the game-winning play.
The Tritons (3-4-2, 1-0-0 SSC) scored the opening salvo earlier in the second half, but had to collectively regroup as a unit following a tying score netted by the Panthers (3-4-1, 0-2-0 SSC) in the 78th minute.
Junior forward
Nick Murawski returned to the lineup and drilled in a shot off a rebound for his team-leading fourth goal of the season early in the second half at the 51:22 juncture in regulation.
"It's a new season and our conference is the best conference in the country," EC Head Coach Steve Magee said. "We should be competitive in that league and do the best that we can do. Florida Tech is a very good team and well coached. Our character and togetherness helped us get the result we needed."
"We came out on the right end of a tough game and played the full 90 minutes," he continued. "I'm very proud of the guys and the work they put in tonight. Toni (Virtanen) was fantastic and made game-changing saves in goal; props to him."
The senior Virtanen ended up making six crucial saves on the night, including a save on a header in the 84th minute.
With a tough stretch otherwise known as the "Plus Four" scheduling portion of the regular season coming to an end this week, the Tritons buckled down to start working on earning another bid to the 2013 SSC Championship.
Eckerd faced No. 3 Rollins College, Barry University, No. 17 Saint Leo University and Tampa (ranked 11th nationally the week before), in order, to complete a challenging series of South Region contests with no impact on the SSC standings.
Florida Tech was left still seeking its first SSC win after opening the league calendar against Rollins in late September.
The Tritons will look to pick up another SSC victory at home next Wednesday when they host Florida Southern College for a 7 p.m. matchup under the lights at the Turley Athletic Complex.
