WINTER PARK, Fla. - The No. 18 ranked Florida Tech men's lacrosse team picked up its fourth victory in a row Saturday, defeating Sunshine State Conference rival Rollins, 14-12, at Barker Family Stadium.
The Panthers improve to 5-4 and 2-0 in SSC play, while the Tars drop to 4-4 and 1-1 in conference action.
Tajee Mobley led all players in the contest with five goals. This is the third time this season that Mobley has scored at least four goals in a game.
Three different Panthers notched four points in the win.
Reid Chaconas recorded three goals and an assist.
Carson Clough finished with two goals and two assists and
Mason Ostrowski scored one goal and dished out a game-high three assists.
Addison Abramson led the defensive effort for FIT with eight ground balls and five caused turnovers.
Brandon Harry and
Tyler Oblong each caused one turnover.
Daniel Flock improved to 5-4 in the Panthers' net with six saves against the Tars.
Florida Tech won 19-of-29 face-offs in the matchup.
Lance Pavlina led the way with a 15-of-22 performance at the "x" and eight ground balls, while
Ryan Land earned 4-of-7 draws.
Both teams finished the contest with 29 shots and 32 ground balls. The Panthers and Tars each made the most of their man-up opportunities as FIT went 4-for-6 on its attempts and RC converted 4-of-7.
Rollins kicked off the scoring with an unassisted tally by Joey Cinque just 1:06 into the contest.
Luke Palmisano tied the game off an assist from Ostrowski. Mobley and Clough then tacked on goals to give FIT a 3-1 lead with 7:02 left in the first quarter.
After RC's Greg Taicher scored on the man-up, the Panthers answered with their own extra-man tally by Clough to push their lead back to two with less than two minutes remaining in the first.
Consecutive goals by Mobley completed the attackman's first half hat trick and handed FIT a 6-2 edge with 13:56 to go before halftime.
Rollins controlled the remainder of the second quarter as the Tars scored four unanswered goals, including one at the buzzer, and evened the game at 6-6 at the halftime break.
Two more goals by the Tars gave them an 8-6 edge early in the third quarter. Chaconas cut the Panthers' deficit to one on a man-up opportunity, and Mobley's fourth goal of the game tied it up at 8-8 with five minutes left in the third.
The Tars scored two of the final three goals of the period and took a 10-9 edge into the final frame.
Logan Sweeney's first score of the game knotted it up at 10-10 less than a minute into the fourth quarter. The Panthers then netted consecutive extra-man goals by Sweeney and Chaconas, both off an assist from Ostrowski, to grab a 12-10 lead with 10:50 remaining.
Cinque trimmed the margin to one with less than six minutes to go but FIT tallied consecutive goals by Chaconas and Ostrowski to increase its advantage to 14-11 with 1:05 left. Rollins scored a man-up goal with 30 seconds to go but it was too little too late as the Panthers earned their first road win of the season.
Florida Tech returns to Panther Field for its next game on Wednesday, Apr. 4, to host SSC rival Lynn. Start time for the matchup with the Fighting Knights is set for 4 p.m. Fans can access live coverage of the action at FloridaTechSports.com/live.
