The injuries keep on pouring in for the Vols as the Florida Gators came to town for the last home game of the 2004 season. Junior Midfielder and Captain Gray Fuller suffered a potentially season ending knee injury Friday night against the Clemson Tigers. The loss of Fuller saw Freshman Attackman Jamie Frick putting in his first start alongside Brian Powers and Miller Sylvan. The Vols fielded Tilley, Blunden, and Bicsak as starting Attackmen though the first seven contests. The Vols have fielded three different lineups for Attack in the last three contests. Brian Powers had a standout game with four goals against the Clemson Tigers but the performance of the new Attack lineups has seemed to suffer from the loss of size with Boomer Blunden out to injury and Chris Bicsak moving to Midfield.
The first quarter saw the Vols jump out to a 3-1 lead with Laurence Tilley and Miller Sylvan contributing a goal and an assist each. Tilley was unassisted to begin the game scoring at 14:19 with a bounce shot while rolling left.. Brad “Soup Cans” Casacci took Sylvan’s feed from X while wide open on the right wing and tossed it by a confused Gator Defense at 9:37 in the quarter. At 5:39 Tilley drove down field and hit Sylvan with a feed in the crease. Sylvan caught the pass in double coverage and got hammered but managed to get the shot past the Florida netminder on his way to the deck. The Gators got in on the scoring action to end the quarter with a goal at 24.3.
The second quarter saw more action from Miller Sylvan as Chris Bicsak picked up a throwaway pass from a Florida defender on a clear and Sylvan scored easily against an off balance Florida defense. Bicsak kept things rolling at 10:49 in the quarter as he scored on a pass from Sophomore Longstick Midfielder Ethan Nichol. The Gators were able to answer both Vol scores in the quarter with goals at 8:53 and 2:25.
The third quarter saw the Volunteers continue their even scoring attack with two unassisted goals from Bicsak at 8:36 and Harvard Powers at 2:12. The Gators got hot in the third, scoring five goals with two coming from Midfielder Steven Belford.
The fourth began with the Vols down by one score at 8-7. The Vols evened things at eight apiece as Chris Kirk forced a loose ball and scooped it to Tilley. On the fastbreak, Tilley took the risk of skipping the point and hit Harvard Powers who Sampras styled Tilley’s pass past the Florida goalkeeper for the Vols last score of the afternoon. The Gators shut the Vols down for the day as Belford scored his fourth goal on eight shots with 7:17 left in the game. The Gators were able to control the clock for the next seven minutes as the a bewildered Vol team took their third home loss in the four game homestand.
Miller Sylvan’s rifle continued to prove accurate, scoring two goals on just three shots. Harvard Powers two scores brought his weekend total to six. Soup Cans proved to have some mustard in him, winning eleven of twelve faceoffs and netting eleven ground balls. Jersey Kirk had another big game for the Vols defense with twelve take aways and A.J. Howland was huge in the net once more with twenty-one saves.
Next weekend sees a three game road trip throught the Midwest with games against the Missouri Tigers and Michigan State Spartans in Columbia, Missouri and a stop in Fenton, Missouri for a Sunday afternoon contest against Washington University’s Bears.