Spartans Late Surge Defuses Bombers

TAMPA, Fla - The No.8 Tampa Spartans welcomed the Ithaca Bombers Tuesday afternoon at the Naimoli Family Athletic Complex. Tampa defeated Ithaca in a tight overtime battle with the Spartans coming out on top with a 9-8 final score.

Following the victory, UT improves to 6-1 and extends its win streak to four games. Ithaca drops to 2-1 on the year.

The Spartan offense was led by Mike Morris, who netted five goals in the match. Serving as the catalyst for the offense Conor Whipple dished out two assists on the day.
Also scoring for the Spartans were Steve Reall, Zak Goldbach, Jake Schmidt, Dylan Kane, who each registered a goal. Tampa Finished the day 11-20 on faceoffs, and posted a clearance rate of .904 on the day.

The Bombers struck first in the game taking an early 2-0 lead. The Spartans answered back with a goal of their own by Morris.The Bombers led most of the first half and took a 6-1 lead going into the half. The key factors that resulted in this was the time of possession and Ithaca's dominating effort on the faceoff. IC won 7-9 of the first half faceoffs.

Defensively Tampa put on an impressive effort causing 12 turnovers and 24 ground balls. Leading the effort on defense for Tampa was Nick Balzano, who scooped up four ground balls and had five caused turnovers on the day. Also playing tenacious defense was Nick Ferreiro, Jon McGowan, Michael Asher and Luke Posner.In net Shane, Giunta came off the bench to get his first win of the year. Guinta posted six saves and .667 save percentage.

The Spartans came out inspired in Second half action. UT went on a 5-0 to start the half. Ithaca rallied back, and the game was a back and forth shootout.

Overtime started with Tampa winning the faceoff and getting a shot off, but it was saved. On the ensuing clear Ithaca goalie, Justin Isaacs turned the ball over. Scooping up the groundball was Tampa's Goldbach who quickly dished it to Reall who put away the game winner.

When asked about his team's performance Coach Whipple said, "he was proud of his team, and they learned a lot about themselves coming out playing the way they did in the second half." He went on to say that the Bombers were an excellent opponent and one of the top teams in division three." Coach Whipple credited their success in the second half to their effort in the faceoff where Ferreiro went 11-18 in the contest

Tampa returns to action March 14th at home against No. 11 Mercyhurst. The game is
slated to start at 7 p.m. Live stats and Broadcast will be available for fans to follow online at TampaSpartans.TV.

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