Late Comeback Comes Up Short for #18 Mocs at Florida Tech

MELBOURNE, Fla. - The 18^th-ranked Florida Southern College men's lacrosse team traveled for the final time during the regular season Wednesday night as the Moccasins took on conference foe Florida Tech. The Panthers used a strong third quarter to pull away from the Mocs and a late rally by the visitors was not enough as Florida Tech hung on for the 15-12 victory.  
 
The loss drops Florida Southern to 8-6 on the season including 2-4 in SSC play while the Panthers improved to 4-6 while moving to 3-1 in league action.
 
Seniors Kaleb Cook and Brendan Glasser led the offensive attack for the Mocs as they each finished with a team-best five points. Cook tallied two goals and a team-best three assists while Glasser finished with a team-high five goals in the loss. Six others each had one score for the Mocs.
 
Defensively, graduate student Nick Shannon became the all-time leader in caused turnovers as Florida Southern as he surpassed Austen Lison's (2016-19) record of 123. Shannon caused a team-best four turnovers Wednesday night to move to 125 career caused turnovers to take over the No. 1 spot.
 
Sophomore Jacob Czyz continued to shine at the 'X' as he went 22-of-31 (.710) with 12 ground balls and a goal.
 
Senior Michael Simone saw the opening 41 minutes of action in goal while making seven saves. Junior Levi Shapiro played the final 19 minutes while making four saves. Simone suffered the loss and moved to 8-6 on the season.
 
Florida Tech was led by Ben Foster who scored four goals while handing out one assist. Jax Francisco saw all 60 minutes in the cage and made 15 saves for the Panthers.
 
The opening quarter saw the Panthers strike first just under three minutes into the game but Cook had the answer just over a minute later as the two teams were tied 1-1 after four minutes of play. The Panthers snuck in two more goals with under eight minutes to play in the period but a late goal by Glasser ended the short run. The Mocs trailed 3-2 after the opening 15 minutes of action.
 
Back-to-back goals by Thomas Frank and Cook in the opening minutes of the second gave FSC its first lead of the game at 4-3. The Panthers tied the game back up just 43 seconds later and the game remained tied until the 7:35 mark. The Mocs once again broke through as Nolan Tighe found the back of the net to put the visitors up 5-4. FT scored two goals within two minutes of each other to swap the lead once more at 6-5 with 4:28 left in the half. The final three minutes off the half featured three goals as Glasser began the run at 2:47 but was answered by the Panthers as 1:27. With just under a minute to play, Charlie Fisher tied the game at 7-7, and the score remained 7-7 heading into the break.
 
The third quarter proved to be costly for the Mocs as the Panthers outscored FSC 6-1 in the period. The Panthers opened the scoring just over two minutes into the half but FSC responded with a man-up goal at the 10:23 mark as Glasser broke through off an assist from Cook. The Panthers then scored five-unanswered goals through the final 10 minutes of the third to take a commanding 13-8 lead.  
 
The Mocs flipped the script in the fourth as they out-scored the Panthers 4-2 but it was not enough to overcome the five-goal deficit. Cook opened the scoring at the 12:44 mark before a Florida Tech response one minute later. Glasser and Czyz scored three-straight for the Mocs as Glasser scored the first two followed by a face off win and score by Czyz just seven seconds later. FSC was unable to score over the final 4:43 as the Panthers added one more goal with 2:01 left for the final tally of 15-12.
 
The Mocs will next be in action Wednesday, April 17 in the regular season finale versus Lynn. The opening face off is scheduled for 4 p.m. at Berend Field.
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