The Florida Tech Panthers (10-1) bounced back from last week’s loss to Florida Southern in a big way on Friday, thumping the visitors from CSU-Pueblo, 23-10 at Florida Tech Panther Stadium.
Sara Grenier scored her 200th-career goal with 26:37 to go in the game and she added two more before all was said, and done. The Panthers had six hat tricks on Friday, with Leah Dunn scoring a game-high five goals.
Dunn, Aleah Fjelstad, Grenier, Caroline Dunleavy, Sam Schiano and Lauren Tybor all scored at least three. Tybor set a school record with 10 assists and also established a new high-water mark with the 13 total points.
As a team, the Panthers outshot CSU-Pueblo 59-18, with 45 of those shots on goal. ThunderWolves goalie Ane Marie Horton was under siege all night, stopping 22 of those shots. Panthers netminder Stephanie Stuart made five saves, before giving way to Chloe Zador with 10:38 left in the game.
As much of a runaway as this game ended up, it didn’t start out that way. Fjelstad got the Panthers going with the first goal of the night but that was quickly answered by Ali Doyle, who scored two goals on the night for the ThunderWolves.
Dunleavy scored the next two, pushing the Panthers lead to 3-1 and Fjelstad made it 4-1. After Leah Neumann made it 4-2, Schiano and Mollie Kaplan made it 6-2 Panthers.
CSU-Pueblo came back with three straight goals, the last of those off the stick of Neumann, cutting the deficit to 6-5 with 15:17 left. Dunn scored nine seconds later, making it 7-5 but another goal by Doyle cut it back to one.
That was as close as CSU-Pueblo would get, as the Panthers offense kicked into high gear. Dunleavy made it 8-6 with 13:49 to go. Tybor scored 12 seconds later and she struck again 27 seconds after that. With the score 10-6, Dunn tallied back-to-back, 1:58 apart, making it 12-6.
The Thunderwolves (1-7) got a goal from Alix Zierden, before the Panthers reeled off another four in a row, capping a 16 goal first half. Allison Wurscher scored with three seconds left in the half, making it 16-8.
Grenier’s career milestone was the first goal of the second half for the Panthers. She scored 1:17 later, making it 18-9. Dunn and Gormley would score before Grenier tallied again with 17:38 to go. That goal was significant as well, marking her 40th of the season. That made it 21-10 and goals from Dunn and Schiano put an exclamation point in an unforgettable night for the Panthers.
The 33 combined goals in this game are the second-most in school history. The Panthers matched it last year against Rollins in the conference semifinal. The record is 36 goals combined, set in 2015 in a 19-17 win over Catawba.
For more info: CSU-Pueblo @ Florida Tech Box Score
Florida Tech will play their first road game since February 25th on Wednesday, when they head to Tampa, to take on the Spartans in a Sunshine State Conference showdown. Opening draw is set for 4:00 p.m.
Historical Statistics provided by Jerry Durney