Only two things went wrong for Lake Mary in the first quarter last night in Ft. Lauderdale. One was that they lost every faceoff. The other was that there was still 36 minutes to play and for whatever reason the players wandered away from what worked in that quarter. And they paid for it in a span of 4:15 to start the second quarter. Still, they fought on and were able to pull within 8-6 midway through the fourth before STA scored the last four goals against a spent squad to pull away for a 12-6 win. For the #1 team in the state . . . a doubleheader of sorts.  An excellent comeback against a very good team and even finally garnering some national recognition from those who should have paid attention earlier . . . (like if they had read FLN earlier?) STA’s offense was very efficient, and I mean VERY . . . 22 shots on goal from 30 attempts gets it done and when you combine that with the long range firepower they have it makes for a long day for a goalie. Which was very important since they were facing one of the best in the state in Lake Mary’s Chandler Harrison.  The goals came in bunches, which is what tends to happen against great goalies and eventually STA found a few cracks to exploit.  Meanwhile, STA’s defense really tightened up in the second and third quarters as LM was held to only one shot on goal each of those periods and LM added to their misery with 10 turnovers as they got away from the patience their offense exhibited in the first 12 minutes.  This was the second game in a row I saw LM and one player I really want to single out (because he wasn’t as visible against a Boca team that didn’t give LM problems), is Zac Nash, a senior long pole who was tasked with the guarding of JP Crowley.  That one-on-one matchup was the most fascinating facet of the game for me as they took turns working on each other and frankly both won.  Even though JP eventually put up 2G/3A it was a game where he really had to work for them and it really took until the third before JP was able to win that battle on an individual basis for a goal. A lesson to all fans . . . sometimes it’s really revealing to focus on a game within a game, not just watching the ball.  Thanks to the two of them for going at it like that. Cleanly too. An awful lot of talent on the field for both squads . . . and both are potential contenders for the Final Four and who knows what happens then.   Lake Mary jumped out early as Kurt Sisco, a terrific all-around middie, took off down the right alley and lasered a perfectly placed top far corner shot just under the corner to take a 1-0 lead at 10:54 (interestingly, on a fourth quarter reprise of the move he went high, short side, probably thinking STA goalie Michael Adler would guess far side but Adler stayed put and made what in retrospect was LM’s last real chance to get closer before the late STA run).  The lead went to 2-0 at 7:09 as Alex Forehand picked up a loose ball on the left wing, face dodged to the crease before finishing low.  The possession for this goal came about because of one of the best ground balls I’ve ever seen by Sisco (if the LM videographer caught that PLEASE send me the clip, I want to enter it in the Mastro Subaru Play of the Week).  Then at 3:12 LM took advantage of the EMO Charlie Ragault took a right crease feed from up top by Zach Gussman and finished all alone to the high right side to end the first at 3-0. STA stormed out of the gate in the second, as mentioned above.  Alex Tumminello broke through at 11:18 as he took a pass on the top right wing and face dodged to the alley before placing a bounce shot into the top left corner.  Then at 10:25 JP Crowley backed his short-stick defender in from right GLE and turned left and hit the low left corner with the left hand.  Only 51 seconds later he tied it at 3-3 as he worked out from behind the right side of the net towards the alley then face dodged to the crease before going low at 9:34.  STA continued the run to take their first lead at 4-3 as Kevin Crowley made a similar play but from the left side at 7:45 and just like that the game had turned around.  The LM defense settled down and at 3:28, on the EMO, they tied it on their only shot on goal as Gussman took a skip pass from Garrett Gile at right GLE on the left wing and when the defender overplayed he spun right and shot low right side to make it 4-4 at the half. STA jumped back in front just 21 seconds into the third as Louie Yovino took advantage of a last second 2nd period penalty on LM on the EMO as he took JP’s top feed on the right wing and fired a low bullet past Harrison.  Again the game settled down defensively until with 2:47 left Tumminello took advantage of another LM penalty to fire home a left wing low left corner shot off JP’s right wing skip pass to make it 6-4 and at 1:50 Tumminello took off down the right wing and after double-clutching he found the far corner just inside the post to send it to the fourth at 7-4. LM jumped back into it just 11 seconds into the fourth as they also took advantage of a late-third quarter penalty to score their own EMO as Sisco stepped into one from up top off Tyeler Castillo’s right wing feed, finding the low right side.  The teams traded possessions until Alex Cumella got into the act in a big way.  At 6:37 he stretched it back to 8-5 unassisted as he went down the right side to GLE then spun left back up the alley before finishing with the left hand to the low far corner.  Forehand got that one back at 5:46, starting up top and going left before finding the low right corner to make it 8-6.  But after Sisco’s alley attempt was saved by Adler STA broke it open with three goals 39 seconds to put the game away. At 5:04 Cumella took JP’s feed from right GLE to the top left wing and Cumella stepped into one, hitting the high left corner.  6 seconds later Joey Guglielmo popped the faceoff forward and found Jimmy Harrington on the left wing and he hit the high short side, and that was followed at 4:25 by Cumella taking a right crease feed (sorry, missed the pass) and he finished alone in front for 11-6.  Cumella then added one last goal at 1:25 as he worked from behind the net and got a step on his defender before finishing in front of the net to cap his 4-goal 5-plus minute outbreak to end the game. For Lake Mary, a frustrating end to their southern swing but another lesson in what can be possible. For St. Thomas, a good lesson in that it is better to a) start quicker and b) you can come from behind against a good team. For those of us in attendance, a heck of a way to spend a Friday night, watching two terrific teams going at it. LM travels to Lyman on Tuesday before finishing the season with Bolles, LHP and Lambert (GA.) while STA hosts Boca Raton on Wednesday.   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  STA 12-8 ( two non-faceoff quarters) Shots:  STA 30 – LM 23 Shots on Goal:  STA 22 – LM 12 Turnovers:  LM 14 – STA 12 Penalties:  LM 7 – STA 6   Individual Statistics   STA Alec Cumella  4G Alex Tumminello  3G JP Crowley  2G/3A Louie Yovino, Kevin Crowley and Jimmy (sorry, Jimmie on the roster I have . . .) Harrington  1G each Joey Guglielmo  1A   LM Kurt Sisco and Alex Forehand  2G each Zach Gussman  1G/1A Charlie Ragault  1G Garrett Gile and Tyeler Castillo  1A each   Chandler Harrison made 10 saves for LM and Michael Adler made 6 saves for STA   Thanks to Coach Crowley and Coach Robinson for speaking to me before and after the game!