
Preview of the FHSAA Girls’ Final Four!
Written on . Posted in Central Girls, Featured Posts, Florida Lacrosse News, High School, Southeast Girls.
Benjamin vs Hagerty at 5:00pm Thursday
This matchup did not occur in the regular season and one thing to start with is the comparison of common opponents: St. Thomas Aquinas: 2/23 – Hagerty loses 13-11 on the road, 3/28 – Benjamin wins 10-6 at home Bishop Moore: 3/14 – Hagerty loses 12-9 at home, 3/18 – Benjamin loses 20-9 at home IMG: 3/29 – Hagerty loses 14-11 at IMG, 3/9 – Benjamin wins 13-6 at IMG St. John Paul II: 4/10 – Hagerty wins 9-8 at home, 4/1-Benjamin wins 11-2 at home Bartram Trail: 4/12 – Hagerty loses 13-9 at Bartram, 3/18 – Benjamin wins 12-9 at home (yes, Benjamin played two games at home on 3/18 and the Bishop Moore game was the second one) When you look at the comparative scores the edge goes to Benajmin. Another thing in their favor is that Benjamin is riding a 10-game winning streak while Hagerty is now 8 for 9. Both teams have upped their games later in the season. Benjamin Head Coach Sarah Burlingame relies on a balanced approach and is known for having to make due with a relatively small roster given the small size of the school. The MaxPreps roster only lists 19 players, well below the FHSAA allowed level of 25 for the final Four. When you look at the posted team statistics for Benjamin they are averaging about 12 goals a game and are yielding only 6 per game, including the 20-goal loss to Bishop Moore. Remove that outlier and they yield 5 per game. That’s stingy. Draw control is at a 56% clip this year. Hagerty’s team statistics show scoring 14 goals per game versus a little under 7 allowed per game and according to my calculations their Draw Control comes in at 53% (MP does not show but I assumed every goal scored for and against and the 2 halves per game to calculate that. Hagerty’s stats show far more Takeaways and Groundballs per game. Neither goalie shows a save percentage above 50% and both are fairly close in the season’s numbers. So statistically this shows to be a close game. Benjamin is led on offense by #10 Jenna Byrne, a Rutgers commit, with 49G/32A. Senior Ashley Turner, 32G/36A, is committed to Ohio State and Hanna Hilcoff, a senior commit to Oregon, chips in with 23G/29A. An experienced group. Others have also chipped in nice G/A totals.






American Heritage-Delray vs Lake Highland Prep following the first game
With all due respect to the first game there are not a lot of lacrosse experts who don’t see this as the championship game going into the event. Both teams currently are ranked in the Inside Lacrosse Top 25 nationally and AH-Delray currently resides in the #3 spot while LHP sits at #19 in yesterday’s release. Nationally. They played early in the season with AH-Delray coming away with the 17-8 win at home back on February 23rd, or in other words, more than 2 months for LHP to make adjustments. Both teams have played tough schedules, with national powers faced by both. AH-Delray’s only loss was to the nation’s #1 team McDonogh and avenged last year’s only loss by defeating #17 Bishop Ireton. LHP has wins over #21 Glenelg (MD) and #8 St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes (VA). Both teams woman-handled IMG and Lassiter (GA). And both have completely dominated their District and FHSAA opponents. When you look at the Team statistics of both squads, they are remarkably similar. They average 17-18 goals per game and yield 4. There’s little to see in any of the Team numbers, with the one exception, that of the early-season matchup and the question is can LHP make up 9 goals? They played a tighter FHSAA final last season that that score so you have to wonder if LHP held a few things back. there also seems to be an advantage to AH-Delray on Draw Controls.






#TAFTAG! #LacrossePutMyButtInThisSeat #EnjoyTheGameNotTheBlame Get out today starting at 5:00pm at Boca High and enjoy the games!