Tropics control own regular season destiny starting Saturday in St. Petersburg

AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Florida Tropics are right where every team wants to be late in the regular season – in control of its own destiny.

The Tropics can secure a United Premier Soccer League Florida West division regular season championship by winning their two remaining games this spring, but it won’t be easy since the first place Tropics will be playing the two teams right below them in the standings, starting Saturday with a road showdown against the St. Petersburg Aztecs.

The team will end its regular season on Saturday, Jun. 12 with a home game against the PSE Conquistadores, one of the two teams so far this year that has been able to hang a loss on the UPSL Tropics. 

Saturday’s game against the Aztecs will be held at the Largo United Soccer Complex at 1779 Belcher Road in Largo. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. and there is no charge to attend. 

The two teams battled to a 2-2 tie earlier in the year at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, a disappointing scoreline considering the Tropics held a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to go in regulation time. 

Bruno Enrique and Melvin Boateng put the Tropics on top. Florida was playing without its star forward William Eyang, who is currently fourth in the nation in scoring with 14 goals in UPSL play this spring, who was away on a family emergency.  Eyang was one of five different goal scorers last weekend when the Tropics topped Naples FC, 5-1, to improve to 7-2-1 (22 points)

St. Petersburg comes in at 6-1-1 (19 points), having suffered their first loss of the campaign last weekend to PSE, 3-1. The Conquistadores are 5-2-2 (17 points.)