Florida Tech Lacrosse Rallies Back Against Lynn 11-8

By  //  April 4, 2015

Improve to 10-2 This Year

Florida-Tech-580--Lacrosse
After going into halftime with a one goal deficit, No. 14 Florida Tech (10-2, 2-1 SSC) used a dominant third quarter to cruise past Lynn University (7-4, 1-1 SSC) for an 11-8 victory at Bobby Campbell Stadium on Friday night. (FIT Image)

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – After going into halftime with a one goal deficit, No. 14 Florida Tech (10-2, 2-1 SSC) used a dominant third quarter to cruise past Lynn University (7-4, 1-1 SSC) for an 11-8 victory at Bobby Campbell Stadium on Friday night.

With the win, the Panthers are now 5-0 away from Pirate Stadium this season, including a 2-0 record in conference road games.

Ryan McAleavey
Ryan McAleavey

“We got back on track,” said head coach Ryan McAleavey.

“It’s our second conference win. We really needed this one and it was a hard fought victory.”

Senior Andrew Conley paced a Florida Tech offense that featured seven different goal scorers against the Fighting Knights. Conley finished with two goals and two assists, while sophomore Charlie Morrisette recorded a hat trick in the win.

Nick Wynne
Nick Wynne

Junior Nick Wynne added one goal and two assists and fellow junior Jason Terry tallied two goals.

Nick Wynne started the scoring with his unassisted goal just four minutes after opening faceoff. Lynn knotted it up at one goal apiece with a score by Jacob Van Leenen, but Conley answered less than a minute later to give FIT a 2-1 lead at the 8:17 mark of the first quarter.

The Panthers pushed their lead to two goals when Morrisette drove by his defender and scored his first of the game

The Fighting Knights controlled the second quarter, scoring all three goals of the stanza. Brian Kiel powered past the Panthers’ defense for his first goal of the contest and Mark Snellman found Austin Jerhoff open on the crease to tie the game up at 3-3 with 9:04 remaining in the half.

Kiel found the back of the net again to give Lynn a 4-3 lead heading into halftime.

Zach Wynne
Zach Wynne

Florida Tech tied it back up at 4-4 when senior Zach Wynne found Morrisette across the crease for a man up goal just 41 seconds into the second half.

The Fighting Knights took the lead back off an outside rip by Tyler Janvrin, but the Panthers responded with a Nick Wynne to Zach Wynne connection on a man up opportunity to tie the game with 11:55 left in the third quarter.

Nick Wynne then found Jason Terry for an absolute howitzer that singed the twine behind Lynn goalie Taylor Ferrino, giving FIT a 6-5 lead.

Christian Isola
Christian Isola

Senior Christian Isola and junior Brian Bacarella each hit the back of the net to increase the Panthers advantage to three goals before Lynn’s Sam Turner ended the run with his in-close goal with 4:08 remaining in the third quarter.

Charlie Morrisette
Charlie Morrisette

Just before the end of the quarter, Charlie Morrisette finished off the hat trick and pushed FIT’s lead back to three goals with his second man up tally of the night.

Conley fired a shot past Ferrino to give the Panthers a four goal lead to open the fourth quarter.

Lynn was able to close the gap to two goals off tallies by Turner and Kiel, but Terry pushed the game out of reach with an empty net goal with just 32 seconds left in the game.

“Both teams played hard,” stated McAleavey.

“They’re a great team but our guys are resilient and we just found a way to win. We were down at halftime but our team came out in the second half with the mission to not let this one get away from us.”

The Panthers’ defense was impressive in the win, holding the Fighting Knights’ top three scorers to a combined one goal in the game

“We knew what these guys could do and our goal was to shut them down this game,” said McAleavey.

“Between our individual defensive performance and team defense we were able to not let them get comfortable in the game. The defense did a great job tonight in their assignments.”

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Florida Tech returns home for a matchup with SSC opponent Florida Southern on Saturday, April 11 at 7 p.m. at Palm Bay High School’s Pirate Stadium.

Prior to the regular season home finale, the Panthers will recognize their seniors as part of Senior Night.

Live video, audio and stats will be available at FloridaTechSports.com/live