No. 5 Spartans Sink Knights With Second Half Surge

BOCA RATON, Fla. - The No. 5 University of Tampa men's lacrosse team opened up Sunshine State Conference play by hitting the road to take on the Lynn University Fighting Knights, Saturday evening, at Bobby Campbell Stadium. The Spartans picked up the win by a score of 15-10.

The game was a back and forth affair between the two sides trading scores throughout the contest. 

Lynn would jump out to an early 4-0 lead before Tampa's Conor Whipple would get his squad on the board, but the Fighting Knight's followed up with a goal of their own by Mikey Urso keeping his side's lead intact. Whipple would answer the call again for the Spartans only to be answered by LU's Brian Kiel and Anthony Rainone. The two teams would then trade goals heading into the locker rooms knotted up at 9-9.

The second half of play would start where the first left off, as Austin Jerhoff initiated the scoring for Lynn giving them a 10-9 lead just 50 seconds into the final half of play. His goal would be the last of the game for the Fighting Knights as Mike Morris would tally his second goal of the matchup on a man-up opportunity, which sparked a 6-0 run by the Spartans to end the game giving them the victory.

Tampa's offense was relentless and efficient outshooting Lynn 44-25, and posting a Shots on goal percentage of  68.1 in the competition. The attack was led by Conor Whipple, who tied the school record for most goals in a game with his eight goal performance, Whipple would also dish out an assist in the match. Mike Morris, Jake Schmidt, and Andrew Kew would each tally two goals apiece on the day.

Defensively, Tampa struggled out of the gate but settled down in the second half scooping up 27 groundballs and forcing six caused turnovers. Leading the charge on defense were Luke Posner and Charlie Cummins. Posner would haul in five groundballs and register a caused turnover, and Cummins would tally three groundballs and three caused turnovers in the game.

Both sides would finish the day with a 50 percent faceoff win percentage. Alex Patton would be the workhorse for the Spartans' efforts as he ended the day 13 for 25 at the faceoff X.

Following the Victory, Tampa improves to 7-1 and 1-0 in SSC play, headed in the opposite direction Lynn falls to 5-3 and 0-1 on the season.

UT will return to action Friday when the welcome the Adams State University Grizzlies to the Naimoli Family Athletic Complex. Game time is set for 7:30 P.M., Live stats as well as a Video broadcast will be available for fans to follow the action via TampaSpartans.com.

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