Despite rain, Golden Panthers cruise past Florida Tech

By: Anthony Guivas / Staff Writer

Coming off the heels of an impressive win against the Akron Zips, FIU continued to add to the win column with another home victory.

FIU (2-2-0) defeated the Florida Tech 2-0 to give the Golden Panthers their second win of the season on Aug. 29.

With constant rain hampering the field it would be an understatement to say the field was treacherous for players. But FIU and FIT did not allow the horrible whether to stop the game from being played.

So after a 30-minute delay, the Golden Panthers took to the field with a victory in mind.

Right off the bat the team began dominating the tempo of the game. Offensively, the ball rarely left the feet of an FIU player during the beginning of the first half.

Quickly in the eighth minute of regulation, co-captain Kelly Ann Hutchinson got a great pass by forward Chelsea Leiva and took a great strike to score the first goal of the game, giving the Golden Panthers a 1-0 lead.

As play progressed, so did the rain and as the clock began dwindling down, the field began to become more trickier to play on. Players from both sides, while trying to execute plays, would lose their footing and in turn fall flat on the wet grass.

“[It was] extremely difficult but we worked through it,” midfielder Johanna Volz said.

Even though FIU dominated the first half, Florida Tech would not go down without a fight, making desperate efforts to tie the game.

But the FIU defense was too much for them to handle, and whenever FIT tried to execute any play they would quickly be smothered by defenders, including goalkeeper Kaitlyn Savage who had key saves during the game.

The rain finally began to let up at halftime, but the field still remained a mess; one that the Panthers would use to their advantage.

“We just had to play to our advantages.It was muddy in the outside so we kept in the middle, we just had to work through it,” Volz said.

The second half began and it was apparent that the Golden Panthers would continue to apply the pressure, never letting up on Florida Tech.

Toward the middle of the second half, FIU tried to finish off a play in FIT territory which lead to Chelsea Levia losing the handle of the ball and falling hard on the ground. Levia stayed down for a few seconds but thankfully it was not serious.

After the small miscue, the Golden Panthers broke through the FIT defense in the 79th minute and Volz, a freshman, took a pass from Kim Lopez and delivered the second goal of the game. The goal was Volz’s first of the season and the first at the collegiate level.

FIU ended up taking a total of 14 shots along with two goals against FIT, which was an improved ratio from Saturday’s game which was 19 shots with only one goal. This pleased both coach Thomas Chestnutt and the rest of the Golden Panthers.

“I think the girls did well and got another shut out and scored one more goal today so overall we are happy we are getting stronger against a tough team that always plays well,” Chestnutt said.

Volz added: “We are not going to lose from here on out we just got to keep the momentum going for the season.”

Now the team looks forward to attempting to get over .500 on Sept. 2 against UMKC.