Colleges: Spartans can't hold early lead, fall to No.19 Pirates

The Tampa Spartans scored twice in the first six minutes, but couldn’t hold off a solid Armstrong Atlantic attack, which rallied to earn the No.19 Pirates a 4-2 victory on Friday evening.

Brittan Spence gave the Spartans (3-5-1) a shock second minute lead, and the lead quickly became 2-0 in the sixth minute as Samantha Kay scored her first of the season.

But the Pirates hit back before halftime, Kristina Paschutti and Morgan Mitchell scored within three minutes of each other around the half-hour mark before Kristin Burton gave Armstrong Atlantic the lead almost on the stroke of half time.

Paschutti scored her second to put the game for the Pirates (6-1-2) in the 72nd minute, Burton adding her second assist of the night to add to her earlier goal.

The Spartans were unable to mount any serious threat on the Pirates goal after that, and will now try to regroup before they face Georgia College and State University on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Savannah, Ga.