Florida Southern Closes Out Regular Season in Impressive Fashion

LAKELAND, Fla. - The Florida Southern College men's lacrosse team closed out the 2024 regular season Wednesday afternoon at home as the Moccasins hosted Lynn University in a key Sunshine State Conference battle. The Moccasins dominated from the opening whistle and captured a 19-4 victory to secure a spot in the 2024 Sunshine State Conference Tournament.
 
The win pushed Florida Southern's record to 9-6 on the season and 3-4 in SSC play while the Fighting Knights fell to 5-9 and 2-5 in league action.
 
Both teams entered Wednesday's game trying to secure a spot in postseason play but the Mocs did not let the Fighting Knights capture any momentum as FSC dominated the opening 30 minutes of action, 9-1.
 
The 19 goals for the Mocs ties their season-high and is the most goals scored for FSC since March 5 in a 19-10 victory over Belmont Abbey.
 
Sophomore Nolan Tighe led the offensive effort as he had a game-high five points off of four goals and an assist. Freshman Grant Ansted chipped in four points including two goals and two assists while three others finished with three points. Junior Matt Flammenspeck tallied a hat trick with three goals to move to within two goals of fourth all-time at FSC. Senior Brendan Glasser added two goals and an assist while junior Brydon Robichaud had a goal and two assists.
 
Four additional Moccasins finished with two points including two unlikely individuals including senior Nick Shannon and junior Blake Terry. The pair each had a goal and an assist in the victory despite primarily playing on the defensive side of the ball. Shannon scored his first career goal in his final regular season contest of his career on Berend Field while dishing out just the second assist of his career. Terry earned his second goal of the season and first assist.
 
Sophomore Jacob Czyz continued his outstanding play at the 'X' as he won 19-of-24 (.792) face offs while scooping up 11 ground balls. Defensively, Shannon and sophomore Joe Buxbaum each caused a team-best three turnovers. Shannon finished with six ground balls while Buxbaum scooped up three.
 
Senior Michael Simone made 10 saves while allowing just four goals to move to 9-6 on the year in net.
 
Lynn did not have a single player have more than one point in the loss while goalkeeper Tristan Lenard took the loss while matching Simone's 10 saves. Lenard played just 34 minutes in goal while two others played the final 25.
 
FSC out-shot the Fighting Knights 53-37 while collecting 42 ground balls compared to Lynn's 31. The Mocs were 27-of-28 in clears while holding Lynn to 20-of-22. Lynn was unable to convert on its lone extra-man opportunity while FSC went 3-of-5.
 
Lynn scored the opening goal of the contest just under a minute and a half into the contest but the Mocs would respond with 12-straight goals ranging from the eight minute mark of the first until the 10:59 mark of the third. Following Lynn's second tally of the contest, FSC scored four-straight to go up 16-2 with 2:38 left in the third. Lynn scored two of the first three goals of the fourth but two goals in the final minute by the Mocs ended the contest in FSC's favor, 19-4.
 
Florida Southern will now await the completion of the rest of the SSC contests scheduled for Wednesday evening before finding out their opening round match-up which will take place this Saturday, April 20.
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