#18 Florida Southern Uses Dominant Second Half to Eclipse #20 Lions

SAINT LEO, Fla. - The 18^th-ranked Florida Southern College men's lacrosse team returned to the win column Wednesday night taking down 20^th-ranked Saint Leo University on the road following a 30-minute weather delay. The two teams battled intermittent rain storms throughout the contest but it was a dominant second half that gave the Moccasins an 18-13 victory.
 
The win evens out the Mocs' Sunshine State Conference record at 2-2 on the year while they move to 8-4 overall. The Lions dropped to 7-3 including 1-2 in league play.
 
A quartet of goal scorers starred for the Mocs as junior Brydon Robichaud led the way scoring a career-high five goals while dishing out two assists for a career-best seven-point performance. Graduate student Thomas Frank continued his recent hot streak scoring four goals for the second-straight game while also handing out his first assist of the season. Sophomore Nolan Tighe chipped in four goals of his own while senior Kaleb Cook added three goals and an assist. Sophomore Anthony Guglielmo and freshman Grant Ansted each tallied a goal as well.
 
Graduate student Nick Shannon led the defensive effort forcing three turnovers to move within striking distance of the career record at FSC. He is now just six caused turnovers away from tying the record of 123 held by Austen Lison (2016-19). Shannon also scooped up a team-high tying eight ground balls.
 
Sophomore Jacob Czyz went 14-of-27 (.518) at the 'X' while classmate Luke Henricksen was 2-of-8 (.250). Czyz picked up eight ground balls to share the team lead with Shannon while Henricksen earned two ground balls.
 
Senior Michael Simone played all 60 minutes in goal and made seven saves to earn his eighth win of the season.
 
The Lions were led by John Raucci who scored five goals including four in the opening 30 minutes. Two others chipped in hat tricks including Greg Palmer and Matthew Cleary.
 
FSC out-shot the hosts 43-33 including 24-11 in the second half. The Mocs also won the turnover battle 19-14 while both teams had a pair of failed clears. The Lions won the ground ball battle 40-36 and did not get called for a single penalty. The Mocs were served with a pair of penalties for a total of 1:30 which the Lions went 1-of-2 in extra-man opportunities.
 
The first 30 minutes of action was back and forth with both teams holding leads but a late run by the Lions gave the hosts a 10-8 advantage at the break. The Mocs came out firing in the second half and out-scored the Lions 6-2 in the third quarter. The two team traded the opening two goals of the period before the Mocs rattled off five-straight. Tighe scored two of the five goals in the streak while Robichaud provided the other three including the game-winning 14^th goal of the game for the Mocs with 54 seconds left in the period. The Lions snuck in a goal with 19 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 14-12.
 
The dominance continued in the fourth quarter as the Mocs out-scored the Lions 4-1. Frank opened the scoring as he scored just 40 seconds into the period. Both teams went silent over the next seven-plus minutes until Robichaud broke the drought at the 6:29 mark finishing off an assist from Matt Flammenspeck. The Lions scored their final goal of the game just under a minute later at 5:43 before Cook put in the final two goals of the game for the Mocs. His first came just 43 seconds after the Lions final goal and the final tally of the game came at the 3:06 mark.
 
The Mocs will return to Lakeland before taking on another ranked opponent as the sixth-ranked Rollins College Tars visit Berend Field Saturday night for a 7 p.m. contest.  
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