The Rollins College Tars used a five-goal second quarter to beat the Florida Tech Panthers 12-9 in a men’s lacrosse matchup at Harper-Shepard Field in Winter Park.
Florida Tech sophomore goalie Vincent Palermo had 10 saves in this game, playing well under pressure as the Tars fired 38 shots in his direction, with 22 on goal. Freshman Patrick Thomas was up to the task at the other end as he made 12 saves. Florida Tech had 33 shots, 21 on goal.
Rollins leading scorer Ryan Dunn finished the day with four goals while Bailey Pringle and Brandon Carlin each had a hat trick. Panthers scoring machine Reid Chaconas got the only hat trick for the Panthers, with Justin Williams and Chandler Hake finishing with two apiece.
Chaconas got the Panthers on the board first with a goal four minutes in. After Carlin scored his first goal of the day to tie it at one, Hake took advantage of a turnover in close and drilled it past Stewart to make it 2-1.
Bailey Pringle scored twice in the final 3:34 to give Rollins a 3-2 lead at the end of the first quarter. The second goal came after Palermo made a nice save on Dunn, but the ball came loose and Pringle got it in with three seconds left in the quarter.
Chaconas would tie the game with his second of the day on a feed from Zach Rozgonyi to tie the game 3-3. Unfortunately, for the Panthers, Rollins went on a five-goal run with Grant Long scoring and Carlin getting two in a row including his hat trick goal before Dunn scored two in a row to give Rollins an 8-3 lead. Williams broke the run with a goal 1:24 before the half, closing the gap to 8-4.
Florida Tech (2-5, 1-3) took 15 shots in the first half, with 11 on goal. Palermo made six saves. Rollins (7-3, 4-3 SSC) took 24 shots with 14 on goal. Thomas made seven saves.
No surprise that Chaconas started the second half with a goal, making it an 8-5 game. Dunn answered with a goal off a deflection to make it 9-5. Matt LeCompte answered for the Panthers going top-shelf on Stewart to make it 9-6. Rozgonyi would get another for the Panthers 1:05 later and it was 9-7.
That was as close as the Panthers would get with Rollins scoring the next three to go up 12-7. Hake would get his second with 2:07 left, making it a four-goal deficit.
With about 20 seconds left in the contest, Rollins took a bit of a shot at Palermo in goal and Tech came to the defense of their goalie. A couple of punches were thrown but the officials got in there pretty quickly. Pringle and Palermo were both hit with unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
That opened the door for Williams to fire a buzzer-beater into the back of the net and with zeros on the clock, Rollins hung on for the win.
For more info: Florida Tech @ Rollins Box Score
The Panthers will host Saint Leo tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Senior Day festivities will take place prior to the game.