LAKELAND, Fla. – The No. 16 Florida Southern College men's lacrosse team continued its winning ways, trouncing Saint Leo University by a final score of 21-10, earning the Mocs' program-record eighth-consecutive victory.
The Moccasins (10-2, 3-0 SSC) dominated the visiting Lions (7-3, 2-1 SSC) from start-to-finish, earning their third conference victory in as many opportunities to stay atop the standings.
Senior
Sean Nolan scored four goals in the victory, effectively overtaking former Moccasin
Dane Sorensen (2012-15) as the all-time leading goal-scorer in Florida Southern history. The attacker from Cross River, N.Y. now has 178 career goals in 61 games, passing Sorenson, who amassed 175 tallies over the course of his career.
Defensively, senior
Nick Shannon had another monstrous day, scooping seven ground balls to tie his career-high while terrorizing the Lions with five caused turnovers. Shannon now moves to third all-time in career caused turnovers with 79 takeaways as a Moccasin.
Junior
Michael Simone earned his eighth win of the season, holding the Lions to just 10 goals with twelve saves including just four in the opening 45 minutes of action. He also came away with four ground balls to help his own cause. Saint Leo came into the game averaging over 17 goals per contest.
There were a few other eye-popping stat lines, as freshman
Jacob Czyz won 16-of-29 face-offs with 14 ground balls while
Sean Nolan tacked on eight, tying his career high.
Nolan broke the Moccasin all-time scoring record quickly, tallying twice in the opening five minutes of the game to give the Mocs an early cushion.
Jay Minor and
Lucas Sommers each scored in the opening minutes of play to break open a four-goal lead to start the game. The Lions would go on to answer towards the end of the quarter, but Nolan's third goal of the day and a late tally from
Matt Flammenspeck gave the Moccasins a 6-2 advantage headed into the second quarter.
Minor hit the back of the net again in the opening minute of the frame, and Nolan scored his fourth just moments later to put the team up 8-2. Freshman
Nolan Tighe joined in on the scoring onslaught before the Lions finally responded to put the team up 9-2 at the midway point of the second quarter.
Tighe, Minor, and
Andrew Medeiros each scored in the closing minutes of the first half to build a 12-3 lead heading into the break.
Medeiros and Minor tallied again to open the third quarter as the Mocs constructed a double-digit lead early in the second half.
Jack Frazee scored his second goal of the year to add to the margin while
Brydon Robichaud and
Kaleb Cook each tacked on tallies to make it 17-4 headed into the final frame.
The Lions were able to amass six goals in the final 15 minutes of play, but the Mocs had the game well in hand headed into the fourth quarter. Flammenspeck and Tighe scored their second and third goals of the game, respectively, to keep Florida Southern ahead by a healthy margin, while sophomore
Owen McCusker and senior
Ryan Gorecki struck to reach the 20-goal plateau.
The Mocs coasted to victory over the course of the final several minutes of the contest, winning by a definitive 21-10 final score.
With the win, the Mocs continue to be the highest-scoring team in the country, averaging over 20 goals per game. They've now won eight straight and will set their sights on two massive in-conference games coming up this week.
The Moccasins will host the No. 8 University of Tampa Spartans this Saturday night at 7 p.m. before traveling to Winter Park, Fla. next Wednesday to face the No. 7 Rollins College Tars at 8 p.m.
