Every year I tend to get one like this.  One team has everything go right and one team struggles early and it snowballs from there and last night that happened.  I ranked Jupiter #18 to start the season due to the massive graduation losses but the way they played last night they will likely move up over the season.  No, I don’t expect them to challenge for a state title this year but they will be more competitive with their toughest opponents than I first felt.  Of course, a game like last night is always difficult to benchmark against but at least there is some further upside.  Coach Dan Loftus has built a very solid program in a highly competitive area and sometimes a season ends up being a positive surprise because a light switch turns on among players that are expected to step into big shoes . . . and sometimes those shoes end up fitting.  Certainly something to watch for as the season continues. For NSC-University, a night to forget, at least as far as the final score shows.  Coach Jan Northrop knows he has a young, rebuilding squad that suffered a season last year that ended up in a disappointment, and changes were forthcoming.  Despite the score Coach Northrop has reason to feel good about what his kids showed last night.  At no point during the game did they stop playing hard.  Goalie Matt Silverstein played well, making a number of in-close saves and starting the clear with quick outlet passes.  The defense played fairly well except for a few times where they failed to read the middle.  Offensively it was a struggle and the statistics certainly show that.  But this team will also get better, even if the record might not exactly show it.  The schedule is pretty tough and there will be a few games like this but Coach Northrop mentioned to me last night how much he enjoys working with this group of kids, and he will have them going in the right direction.  The school is top notch and as long as they will support the program better days are on the horizon.     The game itself started with Jupiter’s Chris Cobo scoring twice in the first with the same exact move, a right alley dodge followed by a right-handed shot to the low left corner, at 9:02 and 7:08.  NSC’s Wyatt Martin got one back at 4:14 on a gritty individual effort as he leaned into his defender behind the right side of the net and beat the defender to the crease area, where he finished with an underhand lefty shot to make it 2-1.  But with 1:18 left Michael Dean, as he so often does, found space in the middle of the defense, and Kevin Justice found him from right GLE for the goal and we ended the first with Jupiter up 3-1.  Silverstein made 5 saves in the quarter as Jupiter dominated possession time, outshooting NSC 14-2. Jupiter pretty much put the game away midway through the second as they scored three times in the first three minutes en route to a 13-goal run over the next 25 minutes.The summary of the run was: 11:47 – Dean from Daniel Stamper off the right crease 11:04 – Justice unassisted off a nice cut to the middle from the right 9:06 – Tanner Gabriel unassisted down the right wing going low left 7:00 – Tommy Pinkham from Cole Lipscher as he cut down the middle 0:39 – Cobo unassisted stepping down from the left wing 2nd Half 10:24 – Dean unassisted after scooping a loose ball 10 yards out on the right wing 7:23 – EMO – Gabriel from Dean on the right wing 6:08 – Justice unassisted with a face dodge from the right wing to the middle 5:32 – Cobo unassisted on another right alley dodge 4:07 – Gavin Nimmo unassisted with a right alley dodge 2:59 – Lipscher curling from behind the net on the right side 1:23 – Kenny Cronin off a left alley dodge 4th 11:05 – Dean from Taylor Leonard as Leonard went down the right alley and found Dean in the middle   NSC broker the run as Max Hermann scored on EMO, taking Drew Hoffman’s behind the net feed on the left wing, firing home into the top right corner. Then Jupiter finished the game as Ian O’Connor took a Cronin feed in the middle for the final goal.   The team stats were overwhelmingly in Jupiter’s favor so I’ll skip that this time but at least faceoffs got more competitive in the second half. Coach Loftus was able to split the game between his two goalies as All American Viper Scheele and Tyler Kendrigan both played about a half each.  Neither was called upon to make many saves, while Silverstein finished with a total of 12 saves, mostly tough ones. Jupiter’s next game will be a tough test at Stoneman Douglas on Tuesday and University will travel to Western-Davie, also on Tuesday   Individual Statistics   NSC-University Wyatt Martin and Max Hermann  1G each Drew Hoffman  1A   Jupiter Michael Dean and Kevin Justice  4G/1A each Chris Cobo 4G Tanner Gabriel  2G Cole Lipscher and Kenny Cronin  1G/1A each Tommy Pinkham, Gavin Nimmo and Ian O’Connor 1G each Daniel Stamper and Taylor Leonard  1A each   Thanks to Coach Loftus and Coach Northop for talking to me before and after the game!   Some pretty good games this weekend!  Tonight I’ll be at St, Thomas as Oxbridge comes to town.  Belen Jesuit and Tampa Jesuit are at Boca Raton High tomorrow (Boca hosts TJ tonight).  Saint Andrew’s travels to the West Coast to take on Barron Collier before heading up the coast to take on IMG on Saturday!  Saint John Paul hosts Benjamin tonight and Lake Brantley hosts LHP.  Up north Buchholz takes on Ponte Vedra. Get out to a game tonight or tomorrow . . . or even both!  And bring a friend who hasn’t seen a game.