MELBOURNE, Fla. – Despite playing a man up for the final 30 minutes of a tightly contested match the Lee men's soccer team opened the 2018 season with a 1-0 loss to Florida Tech on a muggy Thursday evening in the Sunshine State.
After a scoreless first half the Panthers scored the match's lone goal at the 59:26 mark as Luca Campanini found the back of the net off a pass from Junior Roserie.
After the goal Florida Tech's Robbie Madden was shown a red card for some extra-curricular activity forcing the home team to play short-handed for the rest of the night.
Following the goal, Lee's Samaan Williams took advantage of the numbers and placed two shots on goal in a matter of two minutes but both attempts were saved by Panther's keeper Aymerick Berald-Cate who kept the clean the sheet while recording three saves.
Florida Tech outshot the Flames, 11-5 but Lee would hold the advantage in shots on frame at 3-2. The Flames earned just one corner kick while the Panthers took three.
Lee junior goalkeeper Daniel Hrenko was credited with one save while allowing just the one second half goal.
"I was proud of the way the guys competed tonight. We played a good Florida Tech team and we knew it would be a good test for us early in the season," said second-year head coach Derek Potteiger. "I thought we lacked some refinement in certain areas of the field and phases of the game but that's to be expected this early in the season. It gives us a really good barometer as to where we stand and some specific things that we need to improve upon as we keep progressing in the season. Overall I'm proud of the guys effort, it shows some things that we need to work on and we need to start believing we can win these type of games"
The Flames will stay in Florida to take on Embry-Riddle on Saturday at 7 p.m. from Daytona Beach. It will be the Eagles first match of the 2018 season. A three-match road trip to start the season wraps up on Wednesday with a trip to Lincoln Memorial at 3:30 p.m.
Lee will entertain the home crowd for the first time on Saturday, Sept. 8 as it welcomes Bellarmine to town for a 5 p.m. kickoff.
