Bridgeport Squeaks By Florida Tech Panthers 15-13

By  //  March 19, 2015

'Today was a sloppy day'

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Florida Tech (4-4) has lost consecutive games for the first time all season, as it dropped one against the University of Bridgeport (5-0) on Wednesday at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports.(Photo by Amanda Stratford Photography)

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Florida Tech (4-4) has lost consecutive games for the first time all season, as it dropped one against the University of Bridgeport (5-0) on Wednesday at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports.

The Panthers were down big early but came back to take the lead in second half only to lose in the final moments 15-13.

Freshman Sara Grenier paced FIT with three goals and one assist, while two other freshmen, Caroline Dunleavy and Heather Molander, each register a hat trick in the loss. Sophomore Allie Modica added two goals for the Panthers and freshman Mary Gormley finished with one goal and one assist.

Sara Grenier
Sara Grenier

Bridgeport jumped up on Florida Tech early, scoring eight of the first nine goals of the game, including four straight by sophomore Rebecca Reig.

The Panthers answered with a goal by Dunleavy with 6:36 remaining, and Grenier fired two more in just one minute later to decrease the deficit to four.

Bridgeport closed the half with two more goals to take a 10-4 lead into halftime.

FIT opened the second half on fire scoring four consecutive goals, two by Molander, to bring the score to 10-8.

Senior Gabrielle Valela scored her third goal of the game for Bridgeport to stall the run, but Florida Tech responded with four more goals to take its first lead of the game at 12-11 with 14:36 remaining.

The Purple Knights extinguished the Panthers’ momentum with their own four goal spree to push the game out of reach, 15-12.

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Molander scored her third goal of the game with less than a minute left on the clock, but time ran out for the Panthers as they moved to .500 in their inaugural season.

Corinne Desrosiers
Corinne Desrosiers

“Today was a sloppy day, and our mistakes cost us another game,” said head coach Corinne Desrosiers.

“We have discussed starting games off strong and we are still struggling early in games. Our second halves typically more than make up for the first, but our young mentality costs us too many in the turnover column and we allow teams to put one or two in even though we have the lead and control of the ball. We need to play a more complete game if we want to walk away with the W. It’s frustrating, but the real loss is if we don’t learn from it and move forward to the second half of our season playing better lacrosse.”

The Panthers head to Belmont, North Carolina for their first real road test against Belmont Abbey on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Live coverage, if available, can be found at FloridaTechSports.com