Header pic: Justin Williams – Credit: Lou Marinacci – Pictures of Motion
The Florida Tech Panthers (3-2) came into Saturday’s game against Seton Hill ranked 20th in the country. They will certainly move up after an impressive 14-6 win over the number 15 Griffins at the U.S. Lacrosse Complex in Sparks, MD.
Griffin Bowie and Bennett Duffy each recorded a hat trick to lead the Panthers’ attack. Justin Williams had five points, including four assists. Jakob Terpak added two for the Panthers. The Griffins got a hat trick from Peyton Gensler, the only multi-goal scorer for Seton Hill.
The scoring started early with Duffy putting one past Griffins goalie Josh Miller just 51 seconds into the game. After Bowie hit the post 50 seconds later, he made good on his next chance with 8:11 left in the quarter, making it 2-0. Zach Rozgonyi got the assist on the goal.
Colin Socker got the Griffins on the board with a goal with 14:18 elapsed in the stanza, getting it by Panthers goalie John Hulsman. It was 2-1 Panthers at the end of the first quarter.
Terpak’s goal came 2:44 into the second quarter, putting the Panthers up 3-1. Nate Deplancke hit the post a couple of minutes later before Williams made it 4-1 with nine minutes left in the half. Terpak got his second goal of the night 2:02 after Williams’ goal and 1:02 after that, Rozgonyi got the Panthers’ fourth straight goal to make it 6-1. There was no scoring in the final 6:56 of the quarter and the Panthers went to the half, up by five.
Florida Tech picked up right where they left off in the third quarter with back-to-back goals from Bowie and Duffy, to go up 8-1. Andy Davis made it 8-2 but Sam Sidari had the answer for Florida Tech just over two minutes later.
Rozgonyi’s second goal of the night with 3:01 left in the quarter gave the Panthers their 10th goal of the night. Collin Stewart assisted on the Rozgonyi goal and then scored one himself with 1:37 left on a feed from Williams and it was 11-2.
Gensler scored his first of the night with three seconds left in the third with an assist from Layne Harich.
Harich didn’t want to be left out of the goal column, so he scored 45 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 11-4. Bowie got his hat trick goal off of a feed from Williams to make it 12-4 and Duffy’s hat trick came 46 seconds after Bowie’s and it was 13-4.
Gensler scored twice in 23 seconds to make it 13-6 before Deplancke took a feed from Williams for the final goal of the night with 7:29 left. Hulsman made two more saves late in the game, ending the night with seven saves.
For more info: Florida Tech @ Seton Hill Box Score (Sparks, MD)
The Panthers outshot the Griffins 46-33 and had a 27-13 advantage in shots on goal. They also won the ground ball battle 31-24 and caused 16 turnovers. The Griffins did edge out the Panthers on faceoffs, 12-11.
Florida Tech will travel to Delaware on Monday for a noon game against Wilmington.