MONTEVALLO, Ala. – Just two days after defeating the 2022 Peach Belt Conference (PBC) Regular Season Champions 14-4, the 14
th-ranked Florida Southern men's lacrosse team took down the 2022 PBC Tournament Champion, Montevallo, 23-4 to open the season 2-0 on the road for the second-straight year. It took just over 20 minutes of game action for senior
Sean Nolan to notch three goals in the contest to register his 28
th career hat trick which surpasses FSC career record holder Dane Sorensen's (2012-15) career mark of 27.
Nolan went on to score two more goals in the contest to finish with a team-leading five tallies on the day. The Cross River, N.Y. native also handed out an assist to finish with a team-best six points in the contest. Three other Mocs posted hat tricks on the day including graduate student
Jay Minor, freshman
Nolan Tighe and sophomore
Owen McCusker. Minor tied freshman
Caiden Wiech for the team lead in assists with two. A total of 11 different Mocs found the back of the net Sunday afternoon while 10 Mocs earned assists.
The victory moves Florida Southern to 2-0 on the season while the Falcons of Montevallo fall to 0-1 to begin the year.
Defensively, it was once again Preseason All-American defender
Nick Shannon leading the charge with three caused turnovers and a pair of ground balls. Freshman
Jacob Czyz led the team in ground balls with nine while going 14-of-24 (.583) at the X. Fellow freshman
Luke Henricksen took four face offs and finished 3-of-4 (.750).
Graduate student
Maxwell Freestone once again earned the start in goal and stopped seven Montevallo shots in 48-plus minutes of action. He moves to 2-0 on the year in the cage with just four total goals allowed in two games of action. Four other keepers saw action for the Mocs including junior
Michael Simone, sophomore
Levi Shapiro, senior
Matt Halperin and senior
Chris Della Jacono. All four did not allow a single goal to be scored. Simone had two saves in three-plus minutes of action while Della Jacono and Shapiro each posted one save. Halperin did not face a single shot on goal while in the cage.
The Mocs out-shot the host Falcons 48-31 including 33-15 in shots on goal. FSC had five fewer turnovers than the hosts and caused 11 TOs compared to UM's eight.
It took the Mocs just over three minutes to tally the first goal of the contest as junior
Brendan Glasser opened the scoring at the 11:54 mark of the first quarter. The Mocs would score eight unanswered over the opening 12 minutes of action before the Falcons finally broke through at the 1:14 mark of the first to cut the lead to 8-1. Both Tighe and Nolan scored two of the Mocs eight goals in the opening run and all but one of the eight goals was credited as unassisted. The lone assist came as Nolan fed Tighe for the third score of the contest. FSC ended the first quarter of action leading 8-1.
The Falcons opened the second quarter with a quick man-up strike just 15 seconds into the period to cut their deficit to 8-2 but the Mocs responded with a six-goal streak that spanned the end of the second quarter and into the third. FSC led 12-2 at the halftime break and scored the first two goals of the second half to go up 14-2 with just over 25 minutes left to play. Montevallo scored their third tally of the contest with 7:07 left in the third. Graduate student
Andrew Medeiros and senior
Clayton Moench then scored back-to-back goals separated by just 36 second to push the advantage to 16-3. After another Montevallo goal, Nolan closed out the third quarter by scoring his final tally of the contest with just 14 ticks remaining on the clock giving FSC a 17-4 lead heading into the final 15 minutes of action.
The fourth quarter was scoreless for the opening four-plus minutes pf action until Tighe notched his second-straight hat trick as he finished a feed from senior
Lucas Sommers at the 10:33 mark to begin a barrage of six-straight goals from the Mocs in the period. Three of the Mocs' final four goals came from the hands of McCusker who managed to tally his first career hat trick in just under three minutes of action. He scored his first goal of the season at the 6:01 mark of the fourth before tallying goals at 3:22 and 3:12. Both Wiech and freshman
Mikey Wilburn notched their first collegiate goals in the fourth as well, as Wiech scored with 7:25 left in the period and Wilburn found the back of the cage at the 5:17 mark.
The Mocs will now begin preparations for their home opener which is scheduled for this Friday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. as FSC hosts Anderson in non-conference action. The Trojans are 1-0 on the season after defeating Chowan 32-12 on Saturday to open their 2023 campaign.
