HICKORY, N.C. – The Florida Tech men's lacrosse team had No. 6 Lenoir-Rhyne on the ropes for much of Friday night's contest but the Bears were able to pull away early in the fourth quarter and hold on for the 14-12 victory at Moretz Stadium.

FIT dropped to 1-3 with the loss while Lenoir-Rhyne improved to 5-1.

Freshman Justin Williams paced the Panthers with four goals and an assist. Logan Sweeney tallied a hat trick and Carson Clough scored two goals.

Addison Abramson recorded two goals, two caused turnovers and three ground balls. The long stick midfielder now has four goals in the Panthers' first four games. Lance Pavlina went 11-for-27 at the faceoff x with four ground balls and an assist.

Daniel Flock made 11 saves and allowed 14 goals while facing 40 total shots. It was his third game with double-digit saves this season.

Both teams ended the game with 40 shots while Lenoir-Rhyne won the ground ball battle, 27-21.

The Panthers got off to a terrific start in the game and led 3-0 with 6:43 left in the first quarter. Williams tallied two of the goals, the first unassisted and the second off an feed from Tyler Covey, and Abramson added the other.

LRU came roaring back with four straight goals, two by Ben Corrigan, over a span of 1:22 to tie the game at 4-4 with 4:28 left in the opening period. Abramson's second goal gave FIT a 5-4 edge heading into the second.

Corrigan completed his first half hat trick and knotted the game up at 5-5 with a LRU man-up goal just 24 seconds into the second quarter. The Bears scored three of the next four goals of the period to take an 8-5 advantage with 4:30 remaining.

Williams' third goal of the game came on a great solo effort as the midfielder sliced through the Bears defense and trimmed Florida Tech's deficit to 8-6 before halftime.

Two more goals by Ryan Bell and Joe Buduo pushed Lenoir-Rhyne's lead back to four goals, 10-6, with 12:29 to go in the third. Reid Chaconas' unassisted goal at 7:54 in the third kicked off a 3-0 run by the Panthers that made it a one goal game heading into the fourth.

The Bears opened the fourth frame with three straight goals to push their lead to 13-9 with 10:30 remaining. On the ensuing face off, Pavlina collected the loose ball and found Clough for the score right on the doorstep to cut FIT's margin to three.

After LRU scored to push its lead to 14-10, the Panthers tacked on goals by Williams and Sweeney to make it a two-goal game with 2:53 to go. FIT's attempts to tie the contest in the waning moments came up short and the Panthers fell to 0-2 on the road this season.

Florida Tech is back in action on Sunday, Mar. 4, as the Panthers travel to Salisbury, North Carolina for a matchup with another South Atlantic Conference opponent in Catawba. The game is set to begin at 1 p.m. Fans can access links to live coverage of the contest at FloridaTechSports.com.