No. 13 Panthers Fall Short Against No. 9 Tampa 11-8, Season Ends
By Florida Tech // April 27, 2015
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Florida Tech (12-4) fell to Tampa (15-2) in the Sunshine State Conference Championship game 11-8 on Sunday at Naimoli Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
The loss ends the Panthers’ best season in program history. It was an amazing turnaround for FIT after going 3-9 during the 2014 campaign.
Seniors Andrew Conley and Zach Wynne led Florida Tech with one goal and two assists each. Junior Jason Terry and sophomore Ben Abell finished with two goals apiece. Senior Eric Biller finished with 14 saves for the Panthers and sophomore Travis Wunder won 12-of-18 faceoffs.
Tampa opened the scoring with two man up goals by Zak Goldbach and Matt Bilak to jump ahead 2-0 with 9:51 left in the first quarter. Abell scored less than a minute later to bring the Panthers to within one, but Bobby Calhoun fired in a shot, sparking a 4-0 run by the Spartans to take a 6-1 lead with 3:31 remaining in the quarter.
Wynne found sophomore Charlie Morrisette open on the crease with one second left to make it a 6-2 game heading into the second quarter.
The Panthers scored three of the first four goals to start the second period, decreasing the Spartans’ advantage to just two. Tampa answered with a four goal run over the final 6:46 of the quarter to head into halftime with the lead 11-6.
FIT got on the scoreboard first in the third quarter off a great individual effort by Conley. Wynne scored off a deflected pass to make the score 11-7 with 10:43 remaining in the quarter.
Conley then found Terry open at the top of the box for a man up, decreasing the Panthers’ deficit to just three.
Neither team tallied a goal the final 23:44 of the game. The win gives the Spartans their second straight SSC Championship.
Florida Tech out shot Tampa 54-41 in the game and both teams collected 29 ground balls.
2015 All-SSC Men’s Lacrosse Tournament Team
Eric Biller, Florida Tech
Austin Jerhoff, Lynn
Carson Buell, Rollins
Luke Posner, Tampa
Andrew Conley, Florida Tech
Jake Schmidt, Tampa
AJ Arnold, Tampa
Mike Morris, Tampa
Ben Abell, Florida Tech
Travis Wunder, Florida Tech
Conor Whipple, Tampa (Most Valuable Player)
