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Florida Southern Runs Over UMass-Boston 22-7

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
LAKELAND – Looking to shake off their recent 12-6 loss to conference foe and newly-christened No.4 Tampa from this past Saturday, Florida Southern easily handled UMass-Boston 22-7 at Bryant Stadium. The win improves Florida Southern’s overall record to 5-3, while the loss drops the Beacons’ record to 3-3 on the season on the first of a two-game Florida trip concluded when they face SUNY Geneseo on Thursday, Mar. 20, at ESPN Wide World of Sports. The game did not start off well for the Mocs, who received votes in the latest USILA Division II Coaches’ poll. Although freshman Tyler Kuhlman(Wellington, Fla.) scored the game’s first goal at 12:42, the Moccasins found themselves trailing the Division III squad 3-1 with 6:56 still to play in the opening period. A shot from senior Chris Murphy (Camillus, N.Y.) put the score at 3-2 in favor of the Beacons as the first quarter came to a close with the Mocs looking like they hadn’t recovered from their second-half funk against Tampa the previous weekend. Freshman Grant VanOverbeke (Rosemount, Min.) netted his first goal in two games at 14:30, and the Moccasins scored the next four goals of the contest to take a 7-3 lead and never look back. VanOverbeke’s goal was followed by the first point of the day for junior Dane Sorensen (Victoria, British Columbia) with a rip at 9:18 to give the Mocs only their second lead of the game, a lead they would not relinquish for the remainder of the game. Back-to-back extra-man goals from freshman Cody Dyer (Slingerlands, N.Y.) and senior Shane Tompkins (Bear, Del.) followed, with the Minnesota-native assisting on both scores. VanOverbeke tallied his fourth point of the quarter with a goal at 5:48 to give Florida Southern a four-goal lead. The Beacons prevented a scoreless quarter with a goal at 1:48 to put themselves within three going into halftime. The Moccasin offense kicked into overdrive in the third quarter, scoring a total of twelve goals between nine different players to take control of the game. Unassisted goals by Dyer and Tompkins, followed by a goal from senior David Beaumont (New Westminster, British Columbia) off a dish from VanOverbeke gave the Mocs a seven-point lead with 11:42 still to go in the quarter. VanOverbeke’s third goal of the afternoon was followed by the first career Moccasin goal for senior Nick Meyer (Ocean Township, N.J.) to give FSC a 12-4 lead before UM-B found the back of the net for the first time in the quarter with 10:32 to go. Sorensen found the back of the net for the second time off a pass from freshman Blake Weil (Jacksonville, Fla.), while senior Kevin Naslonski (East Setauket, N.Y.) scored off a feed from VanOverbeke as head coach Marty Ward began rotating his starters out of the game in favor of players with less playing time. UMass-Boston scored another goal at 8:53 to make it a 14-6 game. A goal at 7:00 by VanOverbeke began another string of unanswered Moccasin goals. The run, featuring scores from Sorensen, junior Brendan Mykle-Winkler (Langley, British Columbia) and junior Brett Carlson (Chilliwack, British Columbia), lasted seven minutes and put the Mocs up 19-6 when the quarter came to a close. Senior Mike Rothstein (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) scored his first career goal at 12:32 of the fourth stanza to give Florida Southern 20 goals for the second time this season. Fellow senior Kyle Rutkowski (Wesley Chapel, Fla.) dished out a pair of assists to Carlson and senior Stephen Boyle (Selden, N.Y.) before the Beacons scored the game’s final goal at 1:55 of the fourth quarter. VanOverbeke led all players with eight points off four goals and four assists, while Sorensen (3 G), Tompkins (2 G, 1 A), Boyle (1 G, 2 A) and Mykle-Winkler (2 G, 1 A) all tied with three points each. On the defensive side, senior Brad Gysin (Noblesville, Ind.) led with two caused turnovers while sophomore Tyler Novak (Holbrook, N.Y.) grabbed 10 ground balls on the day. Senior Dan Krispinsky (Fort Myers, Fla.), Meyer and Weil combined to go 26-33 from inside the face-off circle, tying the record for most face-offs won previously recorded against Shorter on Mar. 8. Freshman Matt Lalli (New Milford, Conn.) picked up his fifth win after making four saves in 36:07 of action. Sophomore Logan Muether (Hilliard, Ohio) tallied two saves in 8:53 of relief, while freshman Austin Suarez (Fort Myers, Fla.) made one stop in 5:22 of action. Daniel Rivas (Baldwin, N.Y.) andPete Lowrey (Tampa, Fla.) also saw playing time between the pipes in the victory. UMass-Boston was led on offense by John Powers, who scored twice and dished out two assists for four points on the afternoon. Andrew Guy caused four Moccasin turnovers on the defensive side of the field, while Craig Freehill made eight saves in 51:48 of action to pick up the loss. Florida Southern hits the road for only the third time all season for a neutral-site showdown with Mars Hill on Sunday, Mar. 23, at 2 p.m. in Hilton Head, S.C. The Mocs return to the friendly confines of Bryant Stadium for their final non-conference tilt of the season on Friday, Mar. 28, when they host West Region power Colorado Mesa at 7 p.m.