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#1 Tampa Tramples Florida Tech

Photo: Reid ChaconasCredit: Lou Marinacci – Pictures of Motion

 

The top-ranked Tampa Spartans moved to 4-0 with a convincing 16-7 home win over the Florida Tech Panthers (1-3) on Saturday in Division II men’s lacrosse action.

Zach Rozgonyi and Reid Chaconas had two goals each for the Panthers, with Chaconas scoring two his two goals 49 seconds apart late in the fourth quarter. His second goal tied Chaconas for the most goals in Panthers program history.

Cristian Torres had the other Tally for the visitors. Both Rozgonyi and Chaconas also added an assist. Justin Williams had three assists to lead the Panthers in that category.

Tampa got a very good performance in goal from Blake Ulmer who had 11 saves He had plenty of offense from his guys on the other end. Ben French led the Spartans with six goals, while Jack Wood scored five and assisted on four, to lead their squad.

Florida Tech senior goalie Kyle Renz was blitzed early, with Owen Miller and Bryan Wright scoring 19 seconds apart, and French’s first goal came 19 seconds after that, and the Panthers were down three with 12:41 left in the first quarter.

Torres got the Panthers on the board off a feed from Rozgonyi with 7:50 to go in the first quarter. Williams would blast one off the post a minute later and the score remained 3-1.

The Spartans would score the final two goals of the opening stanza with goals Scott Phillips and Wood making it 5-1. They would score all five goals in the second quarter, with French (2) and Wood (3) combining for all the scoring. It was 10-1 at the break.

Vincent Palermo took over in the cage in the second half, giving Renz the rest of the day off after he allowed 10 goals and made four saves. Palermo allowed six and made five saves.

French would score the first two goals in the third quarter with Wood assisting on both. The Panthers finally broke what was a nine-goal run by the Spartans when Rozgonyi found the back of the net, with an assist from Chaconas, making it 12-2. Rozgonyi would do it again 3:17 later, making it a nine-goal contest.

Wood closed out the third period with his fifth of the day with 4:03 to go and the Spartans led 13-3.

Patrick Stewart got the Panthers going in what would be their best quarter of the day. He scored 1:04 into the quarter, and it was 13-4. Tampa then ran off three straight, giving them a 16-4 cushion.

Chaconas would score with 4:06 to go and then do it again with 3:17 remaining, making it 16-6. That second goal puts him in a tie for first place on the Panthers’ all-time list with 96 goals.

Luke Jayne would score the last goal of the day on the man-up, closing the book on a 16-7 game. 

For more info: Florida Tech @ Tampa Box Score

The Spartans outshot the Panthers 47-37 and forced 24 Florida Tech turnovers while giving up 19 of their own. The Panthers were 20-of-24 on clears and Tampa was 20-of-22. The Spartans had a big advantage on ground balls (41-32), and faceoffs (17-7).

Florida Tech will be in action on Tuesday, April 6 when they host Florida Southern. This is a rescheduled game from March 20. The opening faceoff is set for 4:00 p.m.