by JAKE NUTTING

The Tampa Bay Rowdies were in need of an offensive showcase against the Jacksonville Armada FC in order to have a chance at leapfrogging the New York Cosmos for the spring title, but instead they had to settle for a 1-1 draw after struggling to find the back of the net despite having a man advantage throughout the second half of their Spring Season finale.

Playing in the oppressive heat of the afternoon sun, neither side produced many quality looks on goal in the opening half. Tampa Bay’s most dangerous effort of the half from Joe Cole in the 21st minute banged off the post and fell to Kalif Alhassan for a tap-in, but Cole was flagged for being a few inches offside.

Things quickly picked up straight out of the halftime break, as Jacksonville’s Shawn Nicklaw was shown a straight red card for digging his studs into the ankle of Cole on a tackle near the halfway line in the 46th minute.

The Rowdies nearly capitalized on the advantage two minutes later with a tremendous passing sequence that culminated with Georgi Hristov heading the ball down for Juan Guerra in the center of the box. Guerra’s shot, though, hit the post dead center and bounced back into play to keep the match scoreless.

Eventually it was the 10-man Armada FC that made their way on to the scoresheet when they caught the Rowdies sleeping on a counter attack in the 52nd minute. A long ball from substitute Charles Eloundou from his own end of the field was chested down by Juinor Sandoval 30 yards from goal and, with no defender closing him down, Sandoval was free to rip a shot on the bounce to the far post past the outstretched hands of Matt Pickens.

Pickens came up huge for his side six minutes later. Sandoval came in on Pickens’ blind side and clipped the ball when the veteran was looking to clear it from the box. The ball fell straight to Eloundou, but the veteran keeper recovered with a leaping save to knock the chip attempt out for a corner.

Looking for some kind of spark to pull the team out of its funk and erase the one-goal deficit, head coach Stuart Campbell injected three attacking players into the action. First came Tommy Heinmeann immediately after Sandoval’s strike, and then Junior Burgos and Danny Mwanga followed in the 63rd and 71st minutes.

Heinemann came up with two efforts wide of the mark in the 75th and 81st minutes and the Rowdies grew and closer to picking up nothing from the final match of the spring.

They persisted, though, and kept ramping up the pressure on Jacksonville in the attacking end. Unable to find a penetrative pass into the box, Cole laid one back for Junior Burgos and the attacker struck a long-range effort that skipped off the ground and slipped through the back line and keeper Miguel Gallardo to the far post.

Cole and Burgos tried to replicate the sequence with two more shots from distance in the dying moments of regulation time, but Cole’s sailed comfortably to Gallardo and Burgos’ was well wide of goal.

With five minutes of stoppage time, the Rowdies had ample opportunity to still rally for a winner against the gassed Armada FC. All they could muster, though, was a half volley from Darnell King that was about 10 yards over the crossbar.

Heinemann looked to the referee for a penalty when he headed the ball down inside the box and thought defender Bryan Burke was guilty of handling it. No whistle came, though, and the Rowdies left Jacksonville with only a point.

The result leaves the Rowdies just shy of the Spring Season title for the second straight year. They take a break from league action until July 2, when they host a rematch with Jacksonville to kick off the Fall Season.

The Rowdies can’t rest yet, though. They’ve got a date with the Columbus Crew SC on Wednesday in the fifth round of the U.S. Open Cup in Ohio. The match will mark the first time the Rowdies have faced off with a MLS side in a competitive match since the 2013 Open Cup.