FSC Men: #15 Florida Southern Falls to #14 Lindenwood
LAKELAND, Fla. – The 15th-ranked Florida Southern men’s lacrosse team dropped a hard-fought contest at home to 14th-ranked Lindenwood, 13-9, Monday afternoon. The Moccasins jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead over the Lions in the opening two minutes of action but the visitors were able to recover and eventually hang on for the victory.
The loss drops Florida Southern’s record to 4-3 overall with all three losses coming against top-15 ranked opponents. The Lions from Lindenwood improved to 2-1 on the young season.
Junior Kevin Dyer and freshman Matt Flammenspeck led the Lions with two goals each. Dyer took a total of six shots, all on goal while Flammenspeck earned his two goals off of four shots, all of which were on goal as well. Senior Edward May led the team in points with three and assists with two as he handed out two assists to go along with a single goal.
Sophomore defender Nick Shannon caused a team-best four turnovers in the loss while junior Maxwell Freestone and freshman Michael Simone split time in net for the Mocs. Freestone played the opening half and made four saves while allowing eight goals. Simone picked up six saves in the second half and saw five balls find the back of the net.
Senior face off specialist Kevin Horwitz won 15 of his 26 face off attempts while earning a team-best seven ground balls. He also scored one goal while taking three shots.
Patrick Kaschalk led the Lions with a four-goal performance while two others chipped in hat tricks. Goalkeeper Kyle Hebert was forced to make 20 saves in the victory as the Mocs out-shot the Lions 50-42 including a 29-23 advantage in shots on goal.
The Mocs got out to a great start on their home field scoring three goals over the opening two minutes of action. Junior Sean Nolan started things off just 45 seconds into the game as he scored off an assist from May. Horwitz then tallied his lone goal of the game just 14 seconds later after winning the face off and taking it down for the 2-0 lead. May finished off the barrage at the 13 minute mark off an assist from sophomore Thomas Frank. The score would remain 3-0 for the next seven plus minutes until Lindenwood cracked the scoreboard at the 5:16 mark of the first quarter. Dyer would add his first goal of the game just under a minute later to end the first quarter scoring with the Mocs up 4-1.
Lindenwood out-scored the Mocs 7-2 in the second quarter including opening the period on a 4-0 run. The Lions would go on to out-score the Mocs 3-2 in the third and 2-1 in the fourth to capture a 13-9 victory.
The Mocs will return to action one week from today, Monday, March 14 at 7 p.m. as the defending National Champions and top-ranked Dolphins of Le Moyne visit Berend Field.
