MELBOURNE, Fla. – Propelled by a dominant performance at the faceoff x by Ryan Land, the Florida Tech men's lacrosse team rallied from a 8-0 deficit to post its largest comeback in program history and hand No. 20 Rollins a 17-16 defeat in a thrilling affair at Panther Field.

Land set a school and SSC record with 28 faceoff wins in 37 tries as the Panthers won their SSC opener and improve to 5-1 on the season. The 28 wins surpass the team's single-game record of 27 set a few days ago against Nichols College, and are eighth most in a game by a single player in NCAA Division II history. Land was just three faceoff wins away from tying the NCAA record of 31.

Reid Chaconas led Tech with four goals and an assist. Brett Pohlmeyer, Logan Sweeney and Justin Williams each recorded two goals and an assist, with Williams and Pohlmeyer also collecting six and four ground balls in the game, respectively. Tommy Bowser added a goal and two assists and Brad Schillinger scored two goals.

Addison Abramson tallied a goal and an assist to go along with 11 ground balls and two caused turnovers. Land led all players in the game, and tied a school record, with 14 ground balls. After a rough start, Dan Flock came up big again in goal for the Panthers, finishing with 15 saves including eight in the fourth quarter alone.  

The Tars jumped out to a fast start and a big lead early. After Joey Cinque scored to give RC a 1-0 lead just 49 seconds into the game, the Tars tallied seven more unanswered goals to grab an 8-0 advantage with 9:35 to go in the second quarter.

Tech finally got onto the board with 8:51 to go in the second when Tommy Bowser found Brad Schillinger on a cut around the net for his ninth goal of the season.

RC answered with a man-up tally by Cinque to push its lead to 9-1 with 7:27 left in the first half. However, with their backs against the wall, the Panthers fought back.

Chaconas got it going with an outside rip that punctured the top right corner to make it a seven-goal game. He then scored again off an assist from running mate, Sweeney, to make the score 9-3 with 4:29 remaining in the second. Three more unanswered goals by Bryce Johnson, Pohlmeyer, and Tyler Oblong cut the Panthers' deficit to 9-6.

The Tars added one more to their total with just 25 seconds to go in the half but Sweeney responded with his own unassisted tally with five seconds left, and Tech went into halftime trailing 10-7.

After a slow start to the second half, Schillinger got the scoring going with an unassisted effort. Not too long later, Pohlmeyer scooped up the rebound off a saved shot and found the back of the net to trim the margin to 10-9 with 8:42 left in the third.

Rollins received consecutive goals from Jackson Colling and Ryan Dunn to push its lead back to three with 2:55 to go in the third. But Williams then hit the twine 15 seconds later to make it a two-goal game again.

Abramson made sure he got into the mix with a rocket from the top of the restraining box. Williams followed it up with a man-up, goal off an assist from Pohlmeyer, to tie the contest for the first time, at 12-12, heading into the fourth period.

Land won the opening faceoff of the fourth quarter, scooped up the ground ball and then lit up the top left corner for his first goal of the season. The score gave Florida Tech its first lead of the game, 13-12, with 14:42 left.

Tallies by Bowser, off an assist by Brennan Banks, and Chaconas, off a feed from Abramson, increased Tech's advantage to 15-12 with less than 10 minutes to go. Rollins responded with three of the next four goals and cut the Panthers' lead to 16-15 with 5:42 remaining. One more goal by Chaconas, his fourth of the game and 16th of the season, made it 17-15 with 3:50 to go.

The Tars again trimmed it to a one-goal game on a score by Kyler Portera with 1:34 left. However, Flock and the defense shut it down from there with several stops in the final minute, and the Panthers held on for their first league victory of the season.

Florida Tech finished the game with an advantage in ground balls, 66-44, while the Tars ended with more shots, 53-51. The 66 ground balls tie a single-game record for Tech.

The Panthers are back in action Wednesday, Mar. 27, with a key SSC matchup with Tampa on the road. Start time between Tech and the Spartans is set for 8 p.m. at the Naimoli Family Athletic Complex in Tampa, Florida.

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