No. 16 Florida Tech Defeats Palm Beach Atlantic 12-8, Extends Win Streak To Six
By Florida Tech // April 8, 2018
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA – No. 16 Florida Tech continued its winning ways on Saturday night as the Panthers earned their sixth win in a row by defeating Palm Beach Atlantic, 12-8, in Sunshine State Conference play at the PBA Soccer/Lacrosse Field.
This was the first ever meeting between FIT and Palm Beach Atlantic.
With the victory, the Panthers improve to 7-4 and 4-0 in the SSC, while PBA drops to 4-9 and 1-3 in league play.
Brandon Harry paced FIT with his first career hat trick. Justin Williams recorded two goals and an assist and Logan Sweeney tallied one goal and two assists. Carson Clough finished with two goals and three ground balls.
Lance Pavlina and Ryan Land each registered a goal against the Sailfish while guiding FIT to 16 face-off wins in 23 tries on Saturday night. Pavlina won 13-of-19 with 11 ground balls and Land earned 3-of-4 attempts. The duo has been dominant over the current six-game win streak, collecting 103-of-147 (.701) face-offs during the span.
Addison Abramson led the Crimson and Gray defensively with three caused turnovers and six ground balls in the game. The performance gives Abramson 83 caused turnovers for his career, an amount that puts the long stick midfielder past Jordan Carlock for the most in program history. Abramson also has a personal-best 30 caused turnovers in just 11 games this season.
Daniel Flock finished with nine saves while facing 34 total shots to improve his season record to 7-4.
It took nearly 10 minutes before a goal was scored in the game but PBA got on the board first on a tally by Zack Figura with 5:15 left in the first quarter. Logan Sweeney tied the game at 1-1 on an unassisted goal with 18 seconds to go in the opening period.
The Panthers mounted a 3-0 run, on goals by Clough, Land and Mason Ostrowski, during a 48 second span in the second quarter to grow their lead to 4-1 with 4:58 left. Jackson Miller trimmed the Sailfish deficit to two goals with 3:16 to go in the half.
Harry responded with his first goal of the season, off an assist from Tajee Mobley, to give FIT a 5-2 edge. However, a late man-up goal by PBA’s Brendan Fischer cut the Panthers’ lead to 5-3 heading into halftime.
Williams increased Florida Tech’s advantage to 6-3 just 1:03 into the second half but Trevor Keena answered 21 seconds later for the Sailfish to bring the game back to a two-goal margin. The Panthers scored three of the next four goals and took a 9-5 lead into the fourth quarter.
Anthony Cresto’s goal with 5:27 remaining trimmed the margin to 9-6 and ended a nearly 15 minutes scoring drought for PBA. The Panthers then ensued on another quick 3-0 run, on goals by Tyler Covey, Harry and Pavlina during a 31 second span, to put the game out of reach, 12-6, with 3:40 to go.
The Sailfish would tack on two more goals over the final 3:08 of the game but it was too little too late as the Panthers went on to earn their second road victory of the season.
Florida Tech is back in action on Wednesday, Apr. 11, hosting the other SSC newcomer, Embry-Riddle, at Panther Field. Start time is set for 4 p.m. Fans can access live coverage of the action at FloridaTechSports.com/live
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