Box Score
TAMPA - Hoping to come into a hostile environment and leave conquering heroes, the Moccasins left the Naimoli Family Athletic and Intramural Complex on the University of Tampa campus defeated by the sixth-ranked Spartans, 12-6, in Sunshine State Conference action.
The loss ends Florida Southern's four-game winning streak and drops their overall record to 4-3 and their SSC mark to 1-1. Tampa, meanwhile, improves to 7-0 and 1-0 in the conference and continues to be one of the teams to beat in the South Region.
Fresh off his four goal game against Belmont Abbey, senior Shane Tompkins (Bear, Del.) scored the night's first goal off a pass from freshman Grant VanOverbeke (Rosemount, Min.) at 11:38, but Tampa responded quickly with a goal only 15 seconds later to knot the game at 1-1.
The favored-Spartans scored the next two goals at 8:26 and 8:13 to pull ahead 3-1, but the Mocs fought back with unassisted goals from senior Chris Murphy (Camillus, N.Y.) at 6:13 and freshman Cody Dyer (Slingerlands, N.Y.) at 2:32 brought the first quarter to a close with the score tied at three.
Sophomore Matt Boutin (Leonardtown, Md.) set up senior Kevin Naslonski (East Setauket, N.Y.) for a go-ahead goal at 13:49 of the second quarter, but back-to-back Spartan goals put the Mocs down 5-4 with little time remaining in the half. After being held without a point or the entire first quarter, Junior Dane Sorensen (Victoria, British Columbia) found the back of the net with 11 seconds left to tie the score at 5-5 going into halftime.
The momentum swung completely in the home team's favor from this point on, as Florida Southern was held scoreless for the entire third quarter while Tampa scored four goals to go up 9-5 by the time the final quarter began. Another early goal in the fourth put Tampa up by five with 11:15 still to play.
Sorensen finally put the Mocs on the board in the second half with 7:37 still to play, but missed opportunities dashed any hopes of a comeback as Tampa scored two goals in the final 1:30 to pull ahead by six as the final whistle sounded.
Sorensen led the Mocs with two goals on the evening, ending his consecutive streak of five goal games at four, while Tompkins, Murphy and Naslonski each scored once. For the second game in a row, VanOverbeke couldn't find the back of the net, but he did contribute with one of Florida Southern's two assists, the other belonging to Boutin.
The defense, who held Tampa to their second lowest goal total of the season, were led by two caused turnovers from sophomore Kyle McLaughlin (Woolwich Township, N.J.) and five ground balls from sophomore Tyler Novak (Holbrook, N.Y.), while freshman Matt Lalli (New Milford, Conn.) made a commendable 11 saves in a losing effort.
Mike Morris led the Spartans in scoring with three goals on the night, while Connor Whipple - son of current Tampa head coach and former FSC head coach Rory Whipple - led all players with six points off two goals and four assists. Marty Heyn led the Spartan defense with three caused turnovers, while Andrew Failla recorded 10 saves in the victory.
The Mocs return to Bryant Stadium on Tuesday, Mar. 18, when they square off with UMass-Boston (3-2) at 4 p.m.
