Men's soccer at Eckerd College has a history of upsetting highly ranked opponents. Just three years ago the Tritons upset #1 ranked Lynn University 2-1 in overtime after Luke Sheekey slotted home the breakaway goal in the final moments of the first overtime. This year back-to-back games against ranked opponents, #24 St. Leo and #9 Barry, have been the catalyst to some of the best play Eckerd soccer has seen in some time. Defense has been the starting points for the Tritons as at one point they had a streak of 252 minutes without conceding a goal. On offense it was Matt Knight who was the early leader for Eckerd and he has 8 goals, but it has been a balanced attack later in the season with contributions from a variety of players including Senior Anthony Arico, Freshman Nick Murawski, and most recently the Senior defender Sawyer Frank for the team that averages 2 goals a game this year.
The four game unbeaten tear that the Tritons has been on started at home against St. Leo where the Eckerd defense only gave up 3 shots and took 9 shots on route to the 2-0 upset win with goals from Junior TurnerHumphries and Sophomore Daniel Lopez off the bench. The next game saw Eckerd hit the road to face the #9 ranked Barry Buccaneers and the Sunshine State Conference's leading scorer, Senior forward Mark Anderson with 15 goals, in a long drawn out battle that went to the final bell in a double-overtime scoreless draw as the keeper for the Tritons, Finnish Sophomore Toni Virtanen, made 6 saves in 110 minutes of play. This game would be the start of a 3 game tying streak as they would go on to tie with Florida Tech and Tampa in their sucessive games. Eckerd in the same stretch would first face the SSC bottom feeders the Nova Southeastern Sharks in a physical 2-1 Tritons win that saw the end of Eckerd's goalless streak in the 53rd minute courtesy of Halil Tazar, but the Sharks were unable to hold on as Murawski got the scoring touch off a free kick taken by Junior Matt Duffy. Then last Saturday the Tritons take on Florida College in a non-conference matchup that featured sloppy passing and winds in excess of 45 MPH, eventually Eckerd settled down, keeping the ball on the ground and taking advantage of several free kicks to hold onto the 2-0 score as fans huddled under the bleachers to avoid the elements. Currently Eckerd sits in fourth place in the SSC, but the end of there season will feature matchups against the other four teams in the top five spots in the league, three of whom are in the national top 25 rankings, making this make or break time for the Tritons. Eckerd's last home game will be on Oct. 17 at 7 PM as the Tritons take on Tampa for Senior Night.
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