The Florida Tech Men’s Soccer team beat the Saint Leo Lions 2-1 Wednesday, in a Sunshine State Conference showdown. Stian Tsesmetsis and Evan Enders tallied for the Panthers, who moved to 4-0-1 overall.

The Tsesmetsis goal came 1:59 into the contest, off a corner kick by Josh Thomas. Jack Turnbull had a chance to put his team up by two 25 seconds later, but Lions’ goalie Conor McElhinney was up to the task.

Florida Tech starting goalie Christian Moerch made three saves in the first half, including an early header by Ricardo Navia. He robbed Brandon Rivera in the 25^th minute and Keisuke Ohata in the 28^thminute. Fabian Egbele took a shot at the 35:37 mark, but McElhinney made his third save of the half on that shot.

Evan Enders added an insurance goal for the Panthers at the 51:34 mark, with the assist to Brandon Smalley, giving the Panthers a two goal lead. Things proceeded to get pretty chippy following that goal.

Joaquin Peluffo and Haydn Dickinson both received yellow cards at the 51:31 mark and that set off a barrage of cards for both teams in the second half. There were 10 bookings in all, concluding with a red card issued to Jack Turnbull of FIT.

Saint Leo did finally get on the board when Ohata hit the back of the net with about 13 minutes left, making it a 2-1 game. The Lions would get one last shot with 45 seconds to go, when Marcelo Cassas hit the crossbar for the Lions and the Panthers escaped with a big conference win.

For more info: Florida Tech @ Saint Leo Box Score

Next up for Florida Tech is a home date with #22 Rollins on Saturday night. It is another Sunshine State Conference game that will get underway at 7:00 p.m. at Rick Stottler Field.