Thanks to the UF Men’s team for the submission   BATON ROUGE, La. – The University of Florida men’s lacrosse team took down LSU in a thrilling back and forth matchup on Friday night and followed that effort up with a win against Alabama less than 24 hours later. Florida last met LSU in 2015 when the Tigers defended their home field, defeating the Gators by a final score of 9-8 in an absolute thriller. Florida had revenge on their minds in this long over due rematch, but the Gators got off to a rough start and found themselves trailing 5-1 at the half. After regrouping in the locker room, Florida took the momentum back with a big 3^rd quarter, outscoring the Tigers 6-1 in the frame and taking a 7-6 lead into the 4^th quarter. The Gators were able to tack on three more goals and fend off a late LSU surge to defeat the Tigers by a final score of 10-8. A lot of the credit for the Gators’ successful second half versus LSU goes to senior captains Aaron Silcott and Alex Triay. Silcott was phenomenal at the faceoff ‘X’ winning 77% of his attempts. He was able to give the offense the extra possessions they needed to put points on the board quickly and erase the first-half deficit. In goal, Triay was able to spark the defense in the second half with his vocal on-field leadership and some timely saves at crucial junctures of the game. He turned in over half of his saves in the final thirty minutes of the game. Offensively, sophomore midfielder Colin Milo and freshman attackman Sam Khalil lead the charge, supplying two goals each while Khalil added two assists to boot. Freshman Connor McAdorey scored his first career goal on a doorstep finish late in the game that essentially sealed the deal for the Gators.     The Alabama game was a different affair as Florida came out guns blazing to take an early 4-1 lead. It seemed as if Florida would cruise to an easy victory, but Alabama found a way to dig out of the early hole and make things interesting. After a 2nd quarter in which both teams scored 2 goals apiece, the Tide came out hot to start the second half, outscoring the Gators 4-2 in the 3rd quarter. Ultimately, the Gators weathered the storm and took back control of the game in the 4th by capitalizing on scoring chances in transition and converting two of three extra-man opportunities. Senior attackman and team captain Hank Champagne provided two goals and supplied the assist on another in the final frame. Champagne finished the contest with five goals and two assists. Goalkeeper Alex Triay made five of his fifteen saves in the 4th quarter including some big saves on the doorstep en route to an 11-9 victory. The Gators now shift their focus to a divisional matchup against the University of South Florida Bulls. The game will take place in Gainesville on Saturday, February 18^th at 2 PM. On Sunday afternoon, UF will host the First Annual Jamie Chapin Classic, a charitable golf tournament benefitting UF Health’s brain cancer treatment and research (for more information, visit www.gatorlacrosse.com).