No. 20 Panthers, No. 16 Tars Play to Draw

by Jonathan Hower

September 26, 2012

WINTER PARK, Fla. (Men’s Soccer) – No. 16 Rollins dominated the opening session, firing the game’s first 11 shots. But No. 20 Florida Teach weathered the storm with the strength of goalkeeper Brentton Muhammad, who made six first-half saves, to earn the Panthers a conference point in a 0-0 draw with the Tars on Wednesday at Cahall-Sandspur Field at Barker Family Stadium.

In the 15th minute, Rollins (4-2-2, 0-1-1 SSC) had a string of three consecutive scoring chances.

The Tars’ Grant Blackhurst fired a shot to the left side that was saved by a diving Muhammad. While still lying on the ground, Muhammad made another save on a rebound shot. A third shot was fired off the crossbar as Muhammad stood up to take away the open goal.

Two minutes later, Muhammad made another brilliant save on a straight-on shot by Blackhurst. Muhammad pushed the ball over the goal to keep the game scoreless.

“We know what Brentton is capable of, and he showed us that tonight,” head coach Robin Chan said of his goalkeeper. “He definitely kept us in the game during the first half.”

In the 33rd minute, FIT (5-0-3, 2-0-2 SSC) received a free kick just outside 18-yard box on the near side. Yannis Pele, taking the shot, curled the ball over the crowd of players and hit the cross bar near the corner of the goal frame.

Pele developed another scoring chance in the 35th minute off of a corner kick, but sent it just over the crossbar.

The game went to the half with Rollins leading in shots, 12-2.

Muhammad showed up big again in the 78th minute. Rollins’ Alex Brisbee drilled the ball left only to see Muhammad make a diving safe, causing the Tar faithful to gasp.

In the 81st minute, a tiring Rollins team picked up a card. The Tars’ Skyler Russell received his second yellow card of the match, forcing him to exit the stadium. FIT played a man-up the remainder of the game.

“The longer the game went on, I thought the stronger we got.” Chan said. “I was proud of the effort of the boys tonight. They stuck together and supported each other well. We earned the point tonight.”

FIT headed to its fourth overtime in five games, all in conference play.

In the 95th minute, Drake Hillman raced after a loose ball heading into the 18-yard box. Hillman and Rollin’s keeper met the ball at the same time, forcing it to go straight up in the air.

The Panthers controlled play in the second overtime, holding a 3-1 shot advantage.

In the 103rd minute, Muhammad made his ninth save of the match on a header shot that was redirecting a cross. Muhammad earned his third shutout of the season, 11th of his career.

After 110 minutes of play, the final horn sounded to end the game in a 0-0 hard-fought draw.

FIT returns home on Saturday, Sept. 29 when it hosts Florida Southern at 4 p.m. Live stats and audio will be available at http://bit.ly/P60qNL.