Thanks to Tom Congdon for the pictures!   Too many weapons Too much physical advantage Not enough offense for SD And a really bad night clearing the ball.   STA’s formula is pretty simple. Grind, defend, shoot hard, lay the body . . . repeat. And now they are 57 and 2 in their last three years. Grind, defend, shoot hard, lay the body . . . repeat. They only played one team with a losing record this season. Grind, defend, shoot hard, lay the body . . . repeat.     Tuesday will be something special. STA is the Brock Lesnar of Florida lacrosse. But anyone can get their comeuppance.   If I told you Jimmy Harrington would be held scoreless because Stoneman found a way to take him out of the game you might think this would be close. For a while. Didn’t matter in the long run. Joey stepped up, as did Brock . . . Gonzalez, not Lesnar. And a kid named Kevin who dodged and had seven. Overcame a 14-10 deficit in faceoffs. Didn’t matter . . . oh, and let Kevin Horwitz know it every time they could David Landess was terrific in the first half. Didn’t matter, just keep shooting hard.     If you spot a common theme in all this it’s because I’ve seen this about 12 times in the last three years. Grind, defend, shoot hard, lay the body . . . repeat. Even didn’t get fazed early when they gave up two first period EMO goals that tied the game. Seven seconds left in the first . . . shoot hard . . . 3-2 lead after one. Grind . . . 6-3 after two. Defend . . . 9-4 after three Shoot hard . . . ran it up in the fourth.   One thing to ponder. Why risk a late injury? On Tuesday it will be different . . . Double OT last year.  And a team you aren’t going to push around. This STA team lays it on the table Five card stud, no hole card. There will be no bluffing next week.     STA took the lead in the first as Joey Guglielmo scored on the EMO, head faking on the right wing before hitting the top right with the left hand.  At 4:50 it was 2-0 as Guglielmo drew the double team on the left wing and found Gonzalez low on the wing for the low left corner shot.  Right after a penalty expired Max Buckner took the Austin Figas pass up top from the right and his step down hit the top right corner for 2-1.  A quick penalty after the faceoff resulted in a similar play, with Figas finding Horwitz up top for the low right corner and a 2-2 tie.  But Gonzalez gave STA the lead back with 7 seconds left as he snuck out from right GLE and went low to end the first. Kevin Crowley got into the act at 10:36 of the half as Gonzalez finished off the fast break started by a terrific David Madril save by finding Crowley all alone in front from right GLE.  Grant Laman made it 4-2 at 7:28 as he worked behind the net and finally got top side on the right crease for the low left hand shot.  Sam Bailin cut it to 5-3 at 2:57 as he beat his defender to the front for the easy putaway but 44 seconds later it was Crowley curling from left behind and finding the low right side to end the half at 6-3. Crowley opened the 3rd just 38 seconds in with the low left wing shot off a feed by (? – sorry, missed that one).  Stoneman got that back at 9:52 on Braden Mygatt’s dodge from behind right to the crease and finishing with a backhand for 7-4 but that was as close as it was going to get.  Two goals in a little over two minutes late in the period extended it to a 5-goal lead as Crowley scored two more, one off a feed from Guglielmo and one off a Gonzalez feed for 9-4 after three. The final period saw STA wear down SD.  Guglielmo at 11:00 with the up top split dodge to the top right.  Crowley with the curl from behind at 8:01.  Kevin Justice finding CJ Borodiak on the right wing as Borodiak cut down the alley for the left hip shot and it was 12-4 with 5:02 left.  Figas closed out his terrific career with 4:33 left as he took the Bailin feed on the right wing for the top left corner for 12-5 but STA ran off three late ones for the 15-5 final.  Crowley on EMO, Nick Yovino on an open net and Guglielmo from Laman to finish the game. Grind, defend, shoot hard, lay the body . . . repeat.     For Stoneman this is Ryan Burton’s first generation, the seniors who graduate were the freshmen of his first year.  Good luck in the future!  It’s been a lot of fun watching this program join the elite in this state.  For STA, Tuesday will not be in Massapequa, it will be West Palm.  As will be I . . . and a LOT of company in the stands.  See you there!   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  SD 14-10 Shots:  STA 36-31 Shots on Goal:  STA 21-17 Turnovers:  SD  14-13 Penalties:  STA 5-1   Individual Statistics   STA Kevin Crowley  7G Joey Guglielmo  3G/2A Brock Gonzalez  2G/2A Grant Laman  1G/1A CJ Borodiak and Nick Yovino with 1G each Kevin Justice  1A David Madril with 12 saves   Stoneman Austin Figas  1G/2A Sam Bailin  1G/1A Max Buckner, Kevin Horwitz and Braden Mygatt with 1G each David Landess with 6 saves, pretty much all of them spectacular   Thanks to Coach Crowley and Coach Burton for talking to me before and after the game