FSC Men Ride Balanced Scoring to Pull Away in the 2ndH for the 18-7 Win over PBA; Ansted 3G/4A, Tighe 4G, Simone 18 Saves for FSC-Both Recaps
Lakeland alum Kaleb Cook with 2G/4A, SJP alum Nick Shannon 6 GBs for FSC . . . Jupiter Christian alum Keegan Southard 3G, King’s Academy alum Brad Wharton 1A for PBA
via the school press releases/websites
#15 Mocs Sink Sailfish on Senior Day, 18-7
LAKELAND, Fla. – The 15th-ranked Florida Southern College men’s lacrosse team celebrated Senior Day prior to its match-up with Palm Beach Atlantic Saturday afternoon. The Moccasins honored 19 seniors prior to the contest before dismantling the Sailfish, 18-7.
The victory pushes FSC’s record to 7-2 on the season and a perfect 1-0 in Sunshine State Conference play while the Sailfish fell to 4-2 overall and 0-2 in league play.
The Moccasins honored Jack Atlas, Tom Boyd, Casey Campbell, Josh Carpenter, Kaleb Cook, Camden Etten, Zac Fitzgerald, Devin Flores, Thomas Frank, Jack Frazee, Brendan Glasser, Tyler Guthrie, Ethan Hooks, Clayton Moench, Griffin Phillips, Rylan Reese, Dayne Scoblick, Nick Shannon and Michael Simone in a pregame ceremony.
Although it was Senior Day, freshman Grant Ansted stole the show as he scored a career-high three goals and dished out a career-best four assists to lead the Moccasins in points with seven in the contest. To top off the excellent performance, March 23 also serves as Ansted’s birthday! Senior Kaleb Cook represented the seniors well as he finished second on the team with six points as he tallied two goals and handed out four assists.
Sophomore Nolan Tighe lit up the scoreboard for a season-best four goals while classmate Caiden Wiech handed out three assists. The final two Mocs with more than one point were junior Brydon Robichaud and senior Brendan Glasser. Robichaud fired in two goals and an assist for three points while Glasser finished with two goals and no assists for a two-point day.
Wiech also led the defensive effort with four caused turnovers while scooping up two ground balls. Sophomore Joe Buxbaum caused three turnovers on the defensive side while scooping up six ground balls.
Sophomore Jacob Czyz once again had an outstanding performance at the ‘X’ going 24-of-27 (.889) while scooping up a career-best and FSC record-tying 18 ground balls. Fellow sophomore Luke Henricksen came in for one face off and went 1-of-1. Senior Nick Shannon scooped up six ground balls on the defensive side while freshman Maddux Walton took care of the offensive side with five ground balls to his credit.
In the cage, Simone surpassed 300 career saves as he posted his seventh double-digit save performance of the season. The senior stopped 15 shots while allowing just seven goals in 60 minutes of action. He now has 301 career saves to rank fourth in the FSC record book.
The Mocs outscored the Sailfish 4-1 in the opening 15 minutes of action. FSC extended its lead to 9-3 before PBA scored back-to-back goals in the final 13 seconds of action in the first half to cut the lead to 9-5 at the break. Another dominant quarter occurred in the third as the lead grew to 15-7. The Mocs held the Sailfish off the scoreboard in the fourth to take a 18-7 victory.
FSC out-shot PBA 72-31 and forced the Sailfish into 10 failed clears. FSC was 22-of-24 in clears while PBA went 20-of-30. The Mocs dominated in ground balls 63-30 but PBA had the advantage in extra man opportunities 2-of-3 to 1-of-4.
The Mocs will now begin preparation for top-five University of Tampa. FSC will travel to Tampa Wednesday, March 27 for an 8 p.m. match-up.
*****
Sailfish Lose Second Straight to No. 15 Florida Southern
by Simeon Strauss, Athletic Communications Assistant
LAKELAND, Fla.- The Palm Beach Atlantic men’s lacrosse team lost to No. 15 Florida Southern College by a score of 18-7 on Saturday afternoon. The Sailfish (4-2) have now lost back-to-back games since beginning the season 4-0.
In the first quarter, Florida Southern scored four goals straight to start the game. They almost held the Sailfish to zero goals to start the quarter, but with a little under a minute and a half remaining in the period, Hunter Hopman scored the first goal of the game for the ‘Fish after a ground ball by Brendan Pedisich. PBA had one more opportunity in the last seconds after a Pedisich save that led to a shot by Keegan Southard, but it was unfortunately saved by the Mocs goalie, and the score would remain 4-1 going into the second.
In the first couple minutes of the quarter, the ‘Fish scored to cut the lead to two after Southard scored his 10th goal of the season. The Mocs responded with three goals of their own to push the lead to 7-2 over the next seven minutes. Southard scored again after Tyler Hopkins found him for the assist. Florida Southern wasn’t done putting the pressure on PBA, as they went on another run to push the lead to 9-3. Before the period concluded, the ‘Fish had a 2-0 run of their own. That was thanks to Aaron Miechiels and Austin Aireys scoring both goals in the final 13 seconds of the half. Sarver Adams and Brad Wharton were the two creators of the play and were credited with the assists. The score going into the break was 9-5 in the Mocs favor.
Florida Southern scored first to open up the half, but the ‘Fish scored their sixth goal after Henry Sloyan found Southard for his third goal of the game, making it 10-6. A 5-0 run by the Mocs gave them a comfortable nine-point lead and dominated the majority of the quarter on both ends. The ‘Fish scored their final goal of the game in the final seconds of the period. Hopman was the shot-maker after he picked up a ground ball that led to the score. The ‘Fish did not score the rest of the game and gave up three goals in the final quarter, and the Mocs walked away with an 18-7 victory.
Southard led the team with three goals on seven shots, and Hopman also had a notable performance with two goals on four shots. Hopman also had two ground balls to go with his stat sheet. Pedisich started in goal and played the entire game. He had 18 saves on 18 goals attempted, though he was credited with his second loss of the season.
The men’s lacrosse team will compete again next Saturday where they will take on the University of Tampa and will be home for the game.