Explosive Second Quarter Pushes Mocs to Season Opening Victory

ANDERSON, S.C. – The Florida Southern College men's lacrosse team opened the 2022 season with a dominating victory on the road at Anderson University. The Moccasins scored an impressive nine goals in the second 15-minute period of the contest en route to a 23-12 win over the host Trojans.
 
Junior Sean Nolan led the offensive attack with a team-best six goals on the night. Nolan fired a team-high 11 shots at the net with seven finding the frame. Sophomore Thomas Frank and junior transfer Jay Minor each tallied four goals. Frank kept the Mocs in the game early as he scored three of the first four goals for FSC. The Coral Springs, Fla., native tallied an assist as well while firing eight shots, six of which found the frame. Minor earned his four goals on seven shots, five of which were on goal.
 
Six others found the back of the net with junior Jeff Atlas leading the group with three goals and a team-best three assists. Kevin Horwitz picked up where he left off last season at the face-off spot as he captured 24 of the 28 attempts and tallied a pair of goals to go along with a team-best 15 ground balls. Junior Craig Connor added four ground balls to finish second on the squad. Twelve different Mocs each had one caused turnover in the victory.
 
In between the pipes was freshman Michael Simone. Simone faced 22 shots in his collegiate debut while making 10 saves and earning his first college victory while going the full 60 minutes.
 
Anderson was led by Beau Henson who found the back of the net five times while handing out two assists.
 
The game started with a back-and-forth pace as both teams eased into the 2022 season. The Mocs marked the scoreboard first as Frank finished an assist from Atlas just under a minute into the contest to put FSC ahead 1-0. The two teams traded the next four goals until Anderson ended the period with back-to-back scores to take a 4-3 lead into the break.
 
The Mocs tied the contest early in the second stanza on another Frank goal set-up by Atlas. The Trojans countered with back-to-back goals before Florida Southern roared back with eight of the next nine goals to take a 12-7 lead. Minor scored three of the eight goals to lead the rally. Anderson closed the first half with a goal to cut its deficit to four at the halftime break.
 
After trading the opening three goals of the second half, with two for Anderson and one for Florida Southern, the Mocs went on another impressive run scoring five-straight to open a commanding 18-10 lead with 2:15 left in the third period. Once again Anderson was able to score the final goal of the quarter to cut the lead to seven with 15 minutes left to play.
 
The Mocs kept their feet on the gas as they held the Trojans to just one goal over the final period and scored five times on the offensive end to take a 23-12 victory. Nolan scored three of the five goals in the final period.
 
The Mocs will now travel over to Salisbury, N.C., to take on the Catawba College Indians Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.