Thomas, Tars Blow Past Tampa in Opener

Behind a career day by junior Tyler Thomas, no. 18 Rollins coasted past Tampa, 24-5, in an SSC contest to open the 2015 season on Sunday.

The Tars open at 1-0 while the Spartans fall to 0-1 on the young season. Rollins outshot Tampa, 40-6 for the game and collected 28 ground balls compared to the Spartans' nine.

Ty. Thomas led all scorers with eight goals, tying a six year old program record, to go along with one assist for nine points, which also tied a Rollins single game record. More impressive about Thomas' performance was that it was done in all in the first half before sitting much of the second.

Sophomore Taylor Burns also registered a career day, scoring a personal best four goals while junior transfer Kristina Coppolino recorded three goals and four assists in her first game as a Tar. In total, eighth players scored for Rollins as they set a new program best for points in a game with 39 after posting 15 assists on 24 goals.

Both Amanda Voges and Mackenzie Perna scored a pair of goals for Tampa while Amanda Rom added a pair of assists.

In goal, freshman Malorie Olin picked up her first win in her career for the Tars before being replaced for the second half by sophomore Hannah Ricci.

Rollins opened the game with eight unanswered scores, four by Ty. Thomas, before the Spartans finally got on the board with 17:31 left in the half. Tampa then added another a minute later to cut the Tars lead to 8-2 with 16:16 on the clock.

The Tars answered with sophomore Amy Martin's second of her three scores on the day followed by three more from Ty. Thomas to extend their lead to 12-2 with 12:45 left in the first half.

Rollins then outscored the Spartans 5-1 over the final 12-plus minutes of the period, including two by Angelica Perdomo and two by Burns, to take a 17-3 lead at the half.

The Tars picked up right where they left off in the second, opening the half with four straight scores pushing their lead to 21-1 with 17:30 left to play.

Rollins coasted the rest of the way, eventually securing the dominating victory. The 24 goals was the third highest scoring output in the program's history.

The Tars will now hit the road for a pair of games, first traveling to Belmont Abbey on February 12 at 3:30 p.m. Fans that can't make it to the game can follow live stats through links on RollinsSports.com.