Tejada's Brace Not Enough as Tritons Fall to No. 25 Sailfish

Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Juan David Tejada netted a pair of first-half equalizers, but a pair of second-half goals for No. 25 Palm Beach Atlantic (Fla.) proved to be the difference as the Sailfish handed the Eckerd men's soccer team a 4-2 loss on Sunday night at the Turley Athletic Complex.

With both teams well-rested after unexpectedly long breaks, the scoring came in bunches early in the match.  

The Sailfish took little time getting on the board, scoring in the eighth minute when Kebba Nyang finished a low cross from the left side served by Jerry Saint-Vil on their first opportunity of the contest.

PBA narrowly missed on adding to its lead in the 15th minute when Charlie Dennis's strike from straight away deflected off the crossbar before the Tritons cleared the ball out of danger.

Moments later, Tejada fought off a defender after receiving a long ball downfield and fired a shot past Sailfish keeper Elliott Barker into the upper right corner to square the match in the 17th minute.

Palm Beach Atlantic (8-2-1, 4-0-1) answered in 27th minute following a well-played sequence inside the 18-yard box, finished by a Farias Juarez shot inside the right post.  However, it didn't take long for Eckerd to again knot the match, this time after Tejada drew a foul inside the box for a penalty kick.  Tejada took the shot and drove the ball past Barker for his second goal and second equalizer of the night.

The score remained 2-2 for the rest of the half with neither team seeing many clear opportunities to take a lead before the break.

The Tritons took control early in the second half, firing off three shots in a three-minute span, but were unable to slip a shot past Barker.

PBA reclaimed the lead for good in the 64th minute after Lucas Kuscevic collected a deflected ball at close range and touched it over the line for what proved to be the winning goal.

The Sailfish added an insurance goal in the 76th minute when Cleef Desir headed home a corner kick from Lucas Coutinho.

"First and foremost, I congratulate PBA," said EC head coach Ian Cameron.  "They have dealt with some adversity over the last week, and lacking ideal preparation they came here and played very well.  The players and coaches should be proud of themselves."

Tejada completed his second brace of the season and pushed his season goal total to 7.  Alex Gott stopped six shots for the Tritons in goal as PBA out-shot Eckerd, 25-11.

The loss keeps Eckerd (5-2-2, 1-2-1 SSC) from gaining any ground in conference as the team begins a week that features contests against three of the top four teams in the SSC standings.

"From our perspective, the result stings badly," Cameron said.  "We started the second half very strong and failed to turn that domination into a goal, then conceded a very poor goal which stopped that momentum.  Strong periods in games is not good enough against the best teams in the country.  We need to be close to mistake-free for 90 minutes.  Clearly, conceding four goals is far short of that.  But we have 48 hours to analyze this game and prepare for Tampa.  I expect a response."

The Tritons host the University of Tampa on Tuesday night at 7:00 PM at the Turley Athletic Complex.