No. 8 Tampa Trumps Rival Florida Southern in SSC Road Matchup
LAKELAND, Fla. - The No.8 Tampa Spartans hit
the road Saturday to take on rival Florida Southern Mocs in a SSC
weekend match-up. Tampa defeated Southern coming out on top with a
16-12 final score.
Following the victory UT improves to 4-1, and 2-0 in SSC play. FSC
drops to 1-5 overall with a 0-1 mark in the SSC.
The Spartan offense put on a very dynamic effort as 10 different
players scored. Leading the scoring for UT was Mike Morris who
scored five goals on the day. Conor Whipple powered the offense on
dishing out three assists on top of his two goal performance.
Rounding out the
offensive efffort was who Zak Goldbach recorded two goals of his
own. Tampa Finished the day 15-31 on faceoffs, and posted a
clearance rate of .818 on the day.
The Mocs sturck first in the game taking an early 2-0 lead. The
Spartans answered back with a goals of their own from Conor Whipple
and Zak Goldbach. UT struck first in the senond pperiod taking a
3-2 lead on a Mike Morris
goal from a Conor Whipple assist. Once Tampa took the lead they
kept their foot on the gas pedal and did not trail for the rest of
the match. the Spartans went on a 7-1 scoring run to take a 9-3
lead into halftime.
Defensively Tampa put on an impressive effort causing nine
turnovers, and 36 groundballs. Leading the effort on defense for
Tampa was Jon Mcgowan who scooped up four groundballs and had five
caused turnovers on the day. Also paying tenacious defense was Nick
Ferreiro,Chris Vetter, Nick Balzano, and A.J. Leary. Ferriero
picked up six groundballs on the day. Vetter, Balzono, and Leary
all tallied three groundballs a piece. In net A.J. Arnold posted 16
saves and .640 save percentage.
Second half action began with UT leading the way still. FSC made an
attempt to rally back drawing within four, but the Spartans answerd
backscoring two goalsgiving them a comfortable 12-6 lead. The Mocs
would never cut the lead any closer for the rest of the
contest.
The Spartans led by as many as seven during the game.Tampa picked
up the defensive effort in causing five of their nine caused
tuurnovers in the second half.
Tampa returns to action March 9th at home against Emmanuel, GA. The
game is slated to start at 1 p.m. Live stats and Broadcast will be
available for fans to follow online at TampaSpartans.TV.
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