Panthers Notch First Conference Win

MELBOURNE, Fla. (Women’s Soccer) – The Florida Tech Panthers notched their first
conference win of the season in fine fashion Tuesday. The women’s soccer team took it to EckerdCollege with a 4-1 win and a hat trick from sophomore
forward Teresa Brantley
to boost the Panther record to 6-4-1 and 1-3-1 in the Sunshine State Conference.

The match was never in question from the beginning. The Panthers applied strong pressure on the Eckerd Tritons from the start, registering 11 shots in the
first half to just two from Eckerd. Only 15 minutes into the match, the Panthers scored their first goal.   Freshman midfielder Matilda Östergaard dropped her second
corner kick in front of the goal. Sophomore defender Jennifer Gillette was able to knock it
to freshman midfielder Sara
Lewis who scored on the opportunity for her second goal of the season and Gillette’s second assist.   Florida Tech took the one-goal lead
into halftime but came out of the break ready to run away with the match. Brantley started things off in the ninth minute of the second half. Freshman
defender DeeDee Newland,
who has consistently shown she can be an offensive threat from the defender position, passed the ball to Brantley who took the bottom left corner of the
goal.   Just three minutes later Brantley was taken down in the box by the Eckerd goalkeeper, Cory Hawkins, who did receive a yellow card for the
offense. Brantley made mincemeat of the keeper on the penalty kick to push the score to 3-0 and begin whispers of a possible hat trick. As the 78th minute
started, Megan Guzman of Eckerd was able to score an unassisted goal, but the Panthers didn’t take kindly to it.   Just 42 seconds after the Eckerd
goal, Brantley received a well-placed pass from freshman forward Amanda Hjalmarsson that she finished
for the hat trick. On only five shots on goal, Brantley was able to convert for three scores.   Under recent pressure from head coach Fidgi Haig to score more, Brantley and the Panthers responded mightily. When all was
said and done the Panthers logged 31 shots and nearly half were on goal (14). Sophomore goalkeeper Melissa Pyles saw little pressure for
most of the day only needing two saves in just over 84 minutes of play to log the win. Senior goalkeeper Cassie Gonyer snagged a cross out of the
air but didn’t see a shot on goal from Eckerd in just over five and a half minutes of play.   The Panthers will try for their second conference win at
7 p.m. against BarryUniversity in Miami Shores, Fla. on Saturday.   BOX SCORE