The Scots are climbing back into contention. On a night when a lightening bolt struck down the defending champs on the Gulf Coast, a memory of the ghosts of past conquests rose up in Boca, as Memory Lane appeared out of nowhere. 2012. The last time SA raised the championship trophy in the state of Florida.  Seems almost like yesterday in some ways.  The last Final Four was 2015 and that was a quick exit.  First round exits the last two years, one as a prohibitive favorite. But ghosts don’t ever seem to die, they just hibernate for awhile . . . I actually Googled that one to see and at least the first page has no mention of them dying. For some reason, the ghosts like to appear when Jupiter is in town.  And they can have the strangest effects. SA needed this win more.  The best win on their resume this season was American Heritage-Boca.  If you said that last year the laughs would be non-stop.  AH-B won two games last year.  In 2017 the Scots took down Benjamin, Oxbridge in the regular season, LHP and Valor Christian.  This year there’s no LHP or Valor.  Benjamin and Belen Jesuit are the only big games left. SA needed this win more. And for one night, the ghosts conspired to give us an interesting night.     Didn’t start that way.  In the first quarter Jupiter played like they were afraid of ghosts.  7 turnovers and ONE SHOT in the quarter.  But Jupiter goalie Hunter Bracci was able to keep Jupiter in it with 5 saves, as SA put 7 of 9 shots on goal. But don’t be fooled . . . the SA shooting percentage actually went UP as the game went on, for the rest of the game only THREE SHOTS missed the net the rest of the game.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.  21 of 26 on goal. And if you were Jupiter head coach Nick O’Hara you were probably thinking ‘wake up and we’ll be okay’.  But the alarm clock wasn’t set for the second quarter either.  6 more turnovers and a slightly better three shots on goal.  This from an offense that is both talented and plays well together. 4-1 at the half . . . and even then Coach O’Hara might have been okay if his team could get it together.  13 turnovers, 4 shots on goal and he only trailed by 3. For SA head coach Tony Seamen, maybe a little different feeling.  Watching his team play terrific defense.  Efficient offense when they were able to set up the 6 on 6.  Add in an EMO goal and a Man Down goal and you had a solid first half of lacrosse.  Could have been better . . . both teams rode hard and clears were hardly a given . . . and SA really had no answer for Dylan Frankhouser at the faceoff dot.     And then the game came alive in the second half.  The ghosts went to Starbucks for awhile and the third quarter looked so much more like the type of games these teams play against each other.  Jupiter outscored SA 3-2 to narrow the score to 6-4 entering the fourth.  A few more shots for Jupiter and that was it as the Warriors had to kill off three penalties, keeping them from gaining real momentum. But that changed in the fourth, as Jupiter was able to score twice in two minutes midway through the quarter to knot it at 6-6. And the ghosts got back from their trip, took a look at the scoreboard, and decided they wanted in.  The Scots took the lead with 4:18 to go on a lengthy shot from Matt Adams . . . I don’t know if I ever saw him take an up top step down shot before from that distance, he usually likes the Wayne Gretzky approach (for those who are young, you can YouTube that one). And then it really got fun. After a turnover and a timeout by SA in the offensive end, Jupiter set up a double team behind the goal, but somehow Jupiter goalie Riley Quinn (Jupiter splits playing time) ended up having to cover star middie Michael Lizzio and after a quick play it was Lizzio versus Quinn to the front of the net and that was with the ghost at his back. Two goal lead with 1:33 left.     I guess Jupiter snuck their own ghost in the far field as Towson-bound Oliver Alpert made his only big mistake of the game, and after a turnover, went down the field to take a shot with a minute left that everyone rooting for SA found, shall we say, heart palpitating, and when Quinn made that final save the ball went the other way and Jupiter’s ghost took over. Funny, but that ghost was wearing a jersey with #19 on the back and he levitated his game, first by splitting two defenders on the left for the inside shot, beating SA goalie Justin Lugo with 28 seconds left.  After another faceoff win, Ghost Radice worked the left wing, managed to rise up near the low wing and found the net with 8 seconds left to tie it at 8. Lots of 8’s all of a sudden. And Jupiter’s ghost sent one more thrust, as Frankhouser won the faceoff, got a clear look down the right alley but fired over the net as time ran out, to send us to OT. But then the ghost of the Adams Family decided enough was enough and after Jupiter ran possession and turned it over, decided to Ghost-bust the game, as Adams took the pass while cutting middle, dodged a little, faked a lot, and stuck the game winner to give the Scots that very-needed win. SA wins, STA loses . . . is this a return to Memory Lane?  In a couple of weeks we might get the answer.  Of course there’s a third-party ghost in this one but the Southeast quadrant looks fully competitive again . . .     1st Quarter JU 1-0 at 9:12 – Radice finds Denver Aranda all alone on the left crease from up top SA 1-1 at 7:54 – Lizzio down the right alley, hitting the top short side SA 2-1 at 5:07 – on EMO, Lizzio finding Carl Klepper on the right wing and his left hand bounce shot found the shot side   2nd Quarter SA 3-1 at 8:17 – Man Down, as Lizzio split 2 defenders top right after a timeout, down the left alley and to the front for the breakaway SA 4-1 at 5:39 – Adams working behind the net, beating the defense on the curl to the right side, finishing low   3rd Quarter JU 4-2 at 10:35 – Benno Janssen scooping up the rebound in front and finishing SA 5-2 at 8:19 – Klepper taking the Adams feed from right GLE as he cut down the middle and finishing low JU 5-3 at 6:12 – Joey Bretz leading the fast break and finding Aranda all alone in front with the 20-yard pass SA 6-3 at 3:40 – EMO, Adams again finding Klepper, this time from right behind, as Klepper cut down the right alley JU 6-4 at 3:18 – Radice taking advantage of SA not covering him, from left behind out to the left crease for the low shot   4th Quarter JU 6-5 at 7:55 – Devon Rasmus finding Janssen from the top to the right wing for the low to high shot JU 6-6 at 6:10 – Janssen unassisted on the right curl, hitting the top short side SA 7-6 at 4:18 – Lizzio finding Adams up top from the right wing on a delayed call, hitting the low right corner SA 8-6 at 1:33 – Lizzio with the empty/partly guarded net off the curl JU 8-7 at 0:28 – Radice splitting the defenders JU 8-8 at 0:08 – Radice . . . I still don’t know how he scored that one   Overtime SA 9-8 – Adams as mentioned above.   The aftermath was pretty interesting.  Coach O’Hara felt the team came out flat and played too sloppy.  Coach Seaman felt the team has been getting better and really liked how the defense and goaltending played.  He singled out Louie Adams for his improvement over the season.  Both credited the other team for their efforts, particularly on the defense and while riding. Jupiter is back in action on Thursday, hosting St. Josephs Collegiate (NY) while SA travels to Cardinal Newman today.   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  Jupiter 16-4 Shots:  Jupiter 36-26 Shots on Goal:  Jupiter 22-21 Turnovers:  Jupiter 23-14 Penalties:  Jupiter 5-2   Individual Statistics   SA Matt Adams and Michael Lizzio with 3G/2A each Carl Klepper  3G Justin Lugo with 13 saves   JU Chris Radice  3G/1A Benno Janssen  3G Denver Aranda  2G Devon Rasmus and joey Bretz with 1A each Hunter Bracci and Riley Quinn combined for 12 saves   Thanks to Coach Seaman and Coach O’Hara for talking to me before and after the game.