via press release – photo by Ryan Seeloff   Florida Tech outscores Chestnut Hill 8-0 after halftime as Panthers move to 2-0 MELBOURNE, Fla. (Women’s Lacrosse) – After two weeks of waiting Florida Tech was eager to get back on the field for its matchup against north region opponent Chestnut Hill Wednesday at Florida Tech Panther Stadium. The Panthers (2-0) dominated almost every statistical category in the first half yet found themselves tied at 6-6 after 30 minutes of play. In the second half, however, the pendulum shifted in the home team’s favor as the Crimson and Gray scored eight unanswered goals in the final frame en route to a 14-6 victory. Sara Grenier finished with a game-high five points on four goals and an assist. Caroline Dunleavy netted three of her four goals in the second half. The midfield guided FIT to the result, combining for nine points to go along with 11 ground balls, nine draw controls and eight caused turnovers. “We have three quality midfielders on this team,” stated head coach Corinne Desrosiers. “Sam Schiano has really added a lot of intensity and hustle to this team. She and the other midfielders are causing a lot of turnovers and creating a lot of possessions for our team. How our midfield played in between the lines tonight absolutely kept us in the game. They got our offense a lot of possessions and gave us the opportunity to be creative.” Schiano recorded her first career hat trick in addition to collecting a team-high five ground balls and three caused turnovers in the win. Allie Modica tallied two goals, one assist and four ground balls while Mary Gormley added one goal and two assists to go along with her game-high five draw controls. The Griffins opened up the scoring when Samantha Herron found Emorie Keimig on a cut to the cage, putting Chestnut Hill up 1-0 at the 2:41 mark of the first half.  Schiano evened the contest one minute later with her tally off Jordan Grant’s lone assist in the game. Consecutive scores by the Griffins increased their advantage to 3-1 with 13:13 left but the Panthers scored four of the next five goals to draw their first lead in the game 5-4. Chestnut Hill tallied two of the final three goals of the half, with Grenier’s hat trick sandwiched in between the CHC scores, to make it a tie game at the break. At halftime, the Panthers had the edge in a number of stats, including shots (23-11), ground balls (12-10) and draw controls (10-3) while also forcing CHC into nine first half turnovers. “We looked at the box and saw that numbers-wise in the first half we were absolutely taking control of the game,” said Desrosiers. “We just were not finishing and were much too frantic with our possessions. We set out with a game-plan to push it hard and push it fast, and we did that but just were not executing. “At halftime we took some calming breaths in the locker room and told them to just control what they can control in the game. We really spoke about coming out with draws, getting ground balls and just taking care of possession. For a young team they showed some maturity to bounce-back in the second half.” Florida Tech picked it up defensively in the second half, holding the Griffins to just three shots and no goals while also forcing them into 16 turnovers in the frame. The Panthers opened the second with a swift three-goal burst, all unassisted by Dunleavy, Modica and Gormley, to go up 7-4 lead with 27:39 still to play. Grenier’s final tally made it a four-goal margin at the 23:13 mark before Schiano and Dunleavy each found the back of the net twice in succession to get the advantage to eight.  The Panthers ran out the remaining 10 minutes of game time to earn their second victory of the season. At the end of the contest, FIT held a significant edge in shots (36-14) and ground balls (27-18) and limited Chestnut Hill to just 1-of-7 on free possession attempts. The Panthers went 4-of-7 on their free attempts. Keimig led CHC with two goals and an assist while Samantha Herron added one goal and an assist. Four other Griffins tallied one goal in the loss. Florida Tech has a quick turnaround as it welcomes Indiana (Pa.) to Florida Tech Panther Stadium Saturday, March 5 at noon. This will be the first-ever meeting between the Panthers and Crimson Hawks.   Live coverage of Florida Tech home games can be accessed at www.FloridaTechSports.com/live<http://www.FloridaTechSports.com/live>.   Box Score: http://www.floridatechsports.com/wlacrosse/boxscore/2015-16/5387/chestnut-hill-vs-florida-tech-03-01-2016/ 2016 Schedule: http://www.floridatechsports.com/wlacrosse/schedule/ 2016 Roster: http://www.floridatechsports.com/wlacrosse/roster/   Daniel Supraner Assistant Director of Athletic Communications Florida Tech Athletics 150 W. University Blvd. Melbourne, Fla. 32901 Work: 321-674-7484 Fax: 321-984-8529