TAMPA, Fla. (Men's Lacrosse) – Florida Tech (6-6, 2-2 SSC) struggled early in its Sunshine State Conference showdown with No. 13 Tampa (11-4, 4-0 SSC) on Saturday night, eventually falling to the Spartans 15-10 at the Naimoli Family Athletic and Intramural Complex.
 
Carson Clough led FIT with four points, on a goal and three assists, and four ground balls. Reid Chaconas and Logan Sweeney recorded two goals apiece, while Cody Martin finished with a goal and one assist.
 
Long stick midfielder Addison Abramson recorded his fourth goal of the year while recording three ground balls and two caused turnovers. Daniel Flock made 10 saves in goal.
 
Tampa finished the game with more shots, 39-34, ground balls, 28-19, and faceoff wins, 18-10.
 
The Spartans jumped out to an early 3-0 lead just 4:57 into the game. Cody Martin put FIT on the board, off an assist by Clough, to cut the deficit to two. However, UT answered with four unanswered goals to build its advantage to 7-1 at the end of the first quarter.
 
Florida Tech was able to tack on three goals in the second quarter, on tallies by Sweeney, Abramson and Chaconas, but each score was answered with a Spartan goal, and Tampa took a 10-4 edge into halftime.
 
After Conor Whipple pushed UT's lead to 11-4 just 46 seconds into the second half, the Panthers responded with four of the next five goals, by Austen Zugelter, Clough, Chaconas and Sweeney, to cut the deficit to 12-8 with 14:16 left in the fourth quarter.
 
The Spartans answered with consecutive goals of their own to push the margin to 14-8 with just over nine minutes remaining in regulation. Dylan Riley and Brett Pohlmeyer were able to combine for two of the next three goals to cut the deficit to 15-10. However, it was too little, too late as the Panthers dropped their second league game in a row.
 
Florida Tech will look to bounce back in its regular season finale next Saturday, Apr. 22, as the Panthers host SSC rival Rollins for Senior Day. The contest is set to begin at 1 p.m. ET. Fans can access live coverage of the action at FloridaTechSports.com/live.