By Matthew Restrepo
TAMPA, Fla.– The men’s lacrosse team at the University of Tampa (UTampa) beat the Flagler College Saints 16-8 in their first home game at the Naimoli Family Athletic and Intramural Complex on Feb. 8, improving to 2-0 on the season. A strong start led to a nine-goal frenzy for the Spartans in the first half leaving the Saints at a six-point deficit.
Midfielder Tommy Ortega scored the first goal of the game less than a minute into play. The fifth Spartans goal came on an extra-man opportunity after Jacob Hauser of the Saints was flagged for cross-check. With five minutes and four seconds left in the first quarter, Ortega scored his second goal of the match, which the Spartan sideline celebrated by rolling on the turf side by side.
In the middle of the second quarter, the Spartans continued their scoring efforts after a controversial call with less than a minute left, leading to a 12th Spartan goal. Conley Stone scored nine seconds later off an assist from Michael Flores.
Two goals were scored in the third quarter from Saints’ Trace McDonald and Ben Nyberg. Nyberg’s goal came from a player differential due to Tom Rottura slashing, which gave the Saints a 30-second man-up advantage.
After Flagler’s Garrett Moore scored in the middle of the fourth quarter, Jordan Naso of the Spartans won the faceoff, ran the ball up the field, and scored, generating a 15-7 lead.
Of the 28 faceoffs, the Spartans won 20 of those which led to more opportunities. 11 of those face-off wins came in the first quarter. The only quarter the Spartans lost more faceoffs was during the fourth quarter (2-6).
Head coach J.B. Clarke said the team learned about themselves at the game.
“We played really well for a while but we didn’t sustain that,” said Clarke.
When talking about the team, Ortega said, “I think we just need to keep our composure in the second half then keep our energy up.”
Ortega ended the night with three goals, one assist, and five shots.
In the first quarter, the Spartans had 18 shots with the Saints generating six.
The Spartans had 44 shots with 22 being on goal while the Saints had 35 shots with 23 being on goal. Many of those missed shots came later in the game when they struggled to put the ball in the goal.
The Spartans had five assisted goals while 10 goals were unassisted. The Saints had two assisted goals and six that were unassisted.
The Saints outplayed the Spartans in the second half, with goals scored favoring Flagler 4-3.
Even though the Saints had more shots, Spartans goalkeeper Connor Theriault saved 15 of them, which was more than the six saves between Josh Stevens and Wade Lemon on the Saints side.
12 of the Spartan goals came between Ryan Kemp, Grant Green, and Ortega. Four of the Saints goals were shared between Moore and Jack Pilla.
The Spartans suffered more minutes in penalties with two minutes whereas the Saints suffered one minute and 30 seconds. Each team had three penalties. No penalties came from the same player. The Spartans had 13 turnovers and the Saints had 10.
Saints fan A.J. McDonald and father of Trace McDonald said, “Overall today I think obviously Tampa was a better team but Flagler definitely got better playing Tampa.”
These teams will not face each other for the rest of the season. The Spartans are currently ranked No. 2 in the country and play their next home game on Tuesday, Feb. 11 against No. 15 Florida Southern.
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Photo by Macy Avery.