Jacket Split Weekend Series

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets hosted the Florida Gators and Michigan State Spartans over the weekend. 

 

First, the Jackets faced the Gators in a clash of top ten teams as Tech looked to rebound from their loss to Clemson the previous week.  Tech opened the scoring with goals from Brooks Baro and Nick Eliacin to take an early 2-0 lead.  The Gators would answer with a three goal run of their own to take 3-2 lead to close the first quarter.  Tech answered back with a run of their own to open the second quarter.  Tech got goals from Nick Eliacin, Asher Wagnon, and Max Lucas in their three goal run.  The Gators answered with a goal before Brooks Baro scored his second goal of the night to give the Jackets a 6-4 lead at the half. 

 

 

The third quarter was a back and forth affair.  The Gators drew first before the Jackets responded with two goals of their own with Nick Eliacin and Brooks Baro each notching their third goal of the game.  At that point Tech's shooters went cold.  The Jacket offense created opportunities but were turned away time and again by the Gator goalkeeper.  Spurred on by the performance from their goalie the Gators took long offensive possessions and mounted a five goal run to take a 10-8 lead with under three minutes left in the game.  The Yellow Jackets got possession and Asher Wagnon dodged hard to the cage and was able to get his second goal of the game.  Tech got another possession and called timeout to set up a play in an attempt to tie the game.  The Jackets managed to create an opportunity but could not capitalize and lost the game 10-9.  This was the first time the Jackets had lost consecutive games since the end of the 2018 season.

 

On Sunday the Jackets faced the Michigan State Spartans, a perennial top 20 team in the MCLA.  The Spartans dominated the early possession as the Jackets took a while to break the ten man ride that Michigan State employed.  Once the Jackets got possession Asher Wagnon struck first with an underneath move from the wing.  The rest of the quarter was highlighted by defense as the teams were scoreless until Zach Schenken snuck home a one handed finish while driving from behind with under a minute remaining in the first quarter.  The Spartans scored the first two goals of the second quarter to tie the game.  Max Lucas scored his first goal of the day 20 seconds after the Spartans tied the game on an assist from Brooks Baro before the defense could settle in.  A minute later Asher Wagnon scored his second goal of the day on a roll back in early offense.  Nick Eliacin scored his second goal of the game on an inside finish of a feed from Brooks Baro.  Tech closed the first half with a 5-2 lead.

 

The game began to open up in the third quarter.  The Jackets scored three goals in  just over a minute spanning a timeout from the Spartans.  The Jackets got goals from Max Lucas, Zach Schenken, and Nick Eliacin.  The Spartans scored twice before Brooks Baro scored again.  The Jackets thrived in early offense across the second and third quarters playing at a fast pace.  The fourth quarter was more of the same as Zach Schenken scored again in early offense after Kevin Lewis sparked transition.  Nick Eliacin scored once more on a dodge from behind where he dodged the approaching slide as well.  Max Lucas scored the final goal for the Jackets with one second on the shot clock after the Jackets killed clock as the Spartans tried to double team.  Tech was able to close out the game with the 12-6 win.  

 

The Tech defense was stingy all around and very physical with the Spartan dodgers.  Gino Pagliaro made 19 saves gobbling up the shots that the Spartans were able to get on cage.  Kevin Lewis scooped seven ground balls to help spark the Jacket transition game.

 

 

The Jackets will next host Alabama in a region game on Friday March 11.