No. 12 Florida Tech (9-2, 1-1 SSC) met a Rollins College (4-7, 1-2 SSC) team that was ready for the upset bid on Saturday night. The Tars came out firing on all cylinders and defeated the Panthers 9-6 in their Sunshine State Conference home opener at Palm Bay High School’s Pirate Stadium. (Photo by Amanda Stratford Photography)
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – No. 12 Florida Tech (9-2, 1-1 SSC) met a Rollins College (4-7, 1-2 SSC) team that was ready for the upset bid on Saturday night. The Tars came out firing on all cylinders and defeated the Panthers 9-6 in their Sunshine State Conference home opener at Palm Bay High School’s Pirate Stadium.
The loss halted FIT’s record seven-game win streak and marked the lowest goals the Panthers have scored in a game this season.
Senior Zach Wynne led Florida Tech with five assists and sophomore Charlie Morrisette recorded a hat trick in the loss. Juniors Nick Wynne and Jason Terry combined for three goals on Saturday.
Ryan McAleavey
“The guys we wanted to shoot in the game were able to get free and get a lot of shots,” said head coach Ryan McAleavey.
“Rollins has a great goalie, but we’re a team that averages 14 to 15 goals per game and gets a lot of shots off against our opponents. We took 45 shots but we just didn’t convert them. We just didn’t play well offensively. Our defense did though, holding Rollins to 26 shots and forcing them into 17 turnovers. We just need to get back to work.”
It was a sloppy contest with both team’s accounting for 18 unforced turnovers.
Chris Ross scored the first goal of the game for Rollins just over halfway through the opening quarter off an assist from Nicholas Schultz. The Tars would find the back of the net three more times in the quarter to take a 4-0 lead heading into the break.
Florida Tech peppered Rollins with eight high-quality shots in first stanza, but each one was turned away by the Tars’ goalkeeper Jake Hogan who finished with 19 saves in the game.
Zach Wynne
The Panthers came out firing with 12 shots in the second quarter but were only able to muster one goal when Zach Wynne dodged from behind the cage and found Morrisette open on the far post. After 30 minutes of play, Rollins went into halftime leading 4-1.
Nick Wynne brought the Panthers deficit to two to start the third quarter, but Rollins answered with a goal by Morgan Baker just one minute later.
Zach Wynne then found Terry who released an absolute worm-burner from the top of the box that skidded by Hogan to bring FIT back to within two goals.
A.J. Gogan powered past his defender and buried a shot behind redshirt senior goalie Eric Biller to increase Rollins’ advantage and jumpstart a three-goal run by the Tars that gave them an 8-3 lead with 2:40 remaining in the third quarter.
Charlie Morrisette
With three seconds left on the clock, Zach Wynne found Charlie Morrisette on the wing for a man-up goal to make the score 8-4 in favor of Rollins heading into the final stanza.
In the fourth quarter, Zach Wynne found his brother Nick on a cut down the alley to bring the Panthers back to within three with 9:47 remaining in the game. Three minutes later Carson Buell ripped a shot past Biller to push Rollins’ lead back to 9-5 but Zach Wynne found Morrisette again on the crease with five minutes left to make it a three goal game.
The Panthers shot everything they had at Hogan, but Rollins’ freshman goalie continued to turn away shot after shot until time ran out on Florida Tech.
Despite the loss, FIT dominated in a number of key statistical categories, including shots (45-26), ground balls (42-17) and faceoffs (14-5).
Florida Tech looks to get back on track as it heads to Boca Raton, Florida for a SSC matchup with Lynn University (7-3, 1-0 SSC) on Friday, April 3 at 7 p.m.
