t-#19 Florida Southern Falls in SSC Semifinals

TAMPA, Fla. - The t-19^th-ranked Florida Southern College men's lacrosse team fell Wednesday afternoon in the semifinals of the 2024 Sunshine State Conference Tournament on the road at third-ranked University of Tampa, a rematch of the 2023 semifinals. Unfortunately for the Moccasins, the Spartans were able to get revenge for the 2023 defeat as the top-seeded hosts took a 17-11 victory.
 
The loss drops the Moccasins' record to 10-8 on the season while the Spartans improve to 17-1 on the year.
 
Graduate student Thomas Frank, fresh off being named the 2023-24 Florida Southern Athletics Male Comeback Athlete of the Year, led the Mocs with four goals, his third four goal performance of the season. The Coral Springs, Fla. native also caused a turnover and scooped up a ground ball in the loss. Junior Brydon Robichaud finished with two goals and an assist for a three-point effort while freshman Grant Ansted and sophomore Caiden Wiech each chipped in two points. Ansted, who was battling not only the Spartans but his older brother Evan Ansted a graduate student on the Tampa squad, finished with a goal and an assist while his brother tallied one goal for the Spartans. Wiech earned both his points off goals, both coming in the second half.
 
Freshly named SSC Defensive Player of the Year Nick Shannon caused a team-best three turnovers to bring his career record total to 132 while also scooping up a team-high five ground balls. Graduate student Jonas Aquilla picked up two caused turnovers while seven others each had one.
 
Sophomore Jacob Czyz led the face off group as he went 10-of-21 (.476) in the match-up with four ground balls. Three others went to the middle for the Mocs and went a combined 1-of-9 (.111) with sophomore Luke Henricksen earning the only other win.
 
Senior Michael Simone once again picked up double-digit saves in goal for the Mocs as he finished with 10 saves in the loss to move to 10-8 on the season.
 
Andrew Milani led the Spartans with eight points which came off six goals and two assists. Jackson Bashaw (4g) and Zach Friend (1g,3a) each finished with four points for the hosts. Luca Mercaldo picked up the victory in the cage while making 12 saves.
 
The Mocs scored the opening goal of the contest as Robichaud was able to beat the keeper for a 1-0 lead just 1:31 into the game. The Spartans bounced back and scored the next two goals just over two minutes apart to take a 2-1 advantage at the 10:53 mark.
 
The score would remain 2-1 for over six minutes until Frank struck for his first tally of the game off an assist from senior Jack Frazee. Sophomore Nolan Tighe then gave the Mocs the lead just 39 seconds later. The Moccasin run continued at the 2:53 mark as Frank once again beat Mercaldo to put the visitors up 4-2. With the clock running down on the end of the first period junior Matt Flammenspeck found an opening off an assist from Ansted to put the Mocs ahead 5-2 at the first intermission.
 
The Spartans were able to secure the opening two goals of the second to cut the lead to just one but Ansted found the back of the net for the Mocs at the 6:47 mark to push the lead back to two, 6-4. Ansted's brother Evan then answered for the Spartans just over a minute later than began a string of seven-straight goals for the Spartans that spanned into the second half.
 
Tampa ended the first half ahead 9-6 and then tallied two goals in the opening four minutes of the third quarter to open up an 11-6 advantage. Wiech scored the first of his goals with 7:37 left in the third but the Spartans responded just over two minutes later with back-to-back goals within 12 seconds of each other. With Tampa leading 13-7, Robichaud scored off an assist from senior Kaleb Cook with 3:29 left in the third. The Spartans answered within a minute but Frank was able to find a late goal before the end of the period to close the third down 14-9.
 
Tampa scored the opening goal of the fourth just 54 seconds into the period to retake six-goal advantage, 15-9. Just over three minutes later, Wiech picked up his second goal of the afternoon off an assist from junior Blake Terry. Another three minutes went by before Frank scored his final goal of the contest in a man-up situation off an assist from Robichaud. The Mocs trailed 15-11 with 7:52 remaining but FSC was unable to break through the rest of the contest as Tampa added two more goals down the stretch for a 17-11 final. Read Full Article