via press release – photo by Ryan Seeloff   MELBOURNE, Fla. (Men’s Lacrosse) – Florida Tech (6-5, 1-2 SSC) was unable to keep pace with rival Tampa (10-1, 3-0 SSC) in the first half Wednesday night, and it turned out to be the Panthers’ downfall, as they eventually fell to the 3^rd-ranked Spartans 12-6 at Florida Tech Panther Stadium. Jason Terry led FIT with two goals while Brett Pohlmeyerfinished with one goal and an assist. Brian Bacarella, Cody Martin and Austen Zugelter added one goal apiece. Addison Abramson continued his impressive play, collecting three caused turnovers and a game-high seven ground balls.Travis Wunder won 11-of-19 faceoffs to go along with three ground balls. Christian Koch (4-5) made nine saves in the loss, including four in the fourth quarter alone as the Panthers tried to mount a comeback. Tampa opened the contest with unassisted goals by Jake Schmidt and Matt Bilak to take a two score lead, however Pohlmeyer’s individual effort with 24 seconds remaining made it 2-1 at the end the first quarter. Tallies by Andrew Kew and Connor Whipple increased UT’s advantage to 4-1 at the 12:21 mark of the second. Terry cut the deficit to two less than a minute later, but the Spartans quickly responded with consecutive goals by Schmidt, then Kew, to balloon their lead to 8-2. Martin scored late in the half to stop the run and bring the margin to five goals as the teams went into the break. Three unanswered goals by the Spartans gave them their largest lead of the game at eight with 10:33 remaining in the third quarter. Zugelter scored off a feed from Charlie Morrisette to make it 11-4 and, two minutes later, Bacarella got on the board to get the deficit down to six before the final stanza. As the fourth quarter wore on, and the game seemed to inch its way out of reach, tempers began to flare between the two sides. By the end of the frame, the teams had been cited for a combined seven personal fouls. Jud Huxtable and Terry tallied the final goals of the game for their respective squads to bring the contest to its final margin of six. The Panthers lost despite finishing with an edge in ground balls (34-25), faceoffs (12-8) and shots (41-27), however only 20 of FIT’s shots were on goal. Neither team could take advantage of their extra-man opportunities, with Tampa going 0-for-3 while FIT was 0-for-5. Kew paced all players with four goals while Whipple added two goals and two assists. Schmidt notched a hat trick on just three shots and Charlie Cummins recorded a game-high four caused turnovers to go along with three ground balls. A.J. Arnold (6-0) made 14 saves in goal for the Spartans. Next on the docket for Florida Tech is a trip to Winter Park, Florida to take on SSC foe Rollins College on Saturday, Apr. 16 at 1 p.m. ET at Barker Family Stadium. Links to live coverage will be available at FloridaTechSports.com.   Box Score: http://www.floridatechsports.com/mlacrosse/boxscore/2015-16/5418/3-tampa-vs-florida-tech-04-06-2016/ 2016 Schedule: http://www.floridatechsports.com/mlacrosse/schedule/ 2016 Roster: http://www.floridatechsports.com/mlacrosse/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