thanks to Tom Martinez for the pictures from last night!   St. Thomas Aquinas used a 6-goal run over a 16-minute span of the first and second period to pull away on Senior Night for the Top 20 matchup.  Both teams played at a fast pace and the game featured offensive talents as both goalies were forced to make many close-in saves as both offenses were able to get very good looks throughout the game.  In this game the statistics pretty much tied into the result and without the early run the game was very much a back and forth effort, but in the end STA showed why it holds such a high ranking as they were able to overcome a quiet night from STA’s Louie Yovino, with Kevin Crowley and Sam Khalil stepping up.  A similar result on the Gulliver side as Trevor Pelletier was held to one assist, with CJ Hassan stepping up in his stead. Watching the game was an interesting match up of differing styles.  STA pushing their athleticism to open up space and in particular their dodging down low was very effective while Gulliver’s offense reminded me of a Maryland team, with a very confident finesse passing approach supplemented by a lot of quickness leading to their goals.  Gulliver’s goals were mostly from the 10-12 yard range but they also got inside a lot, only to be foiled by STA goalie Michael Adler’s in-close saves.  It really could have been a much closer result if Gulliver finished those close in opportunities.  On the other hand, STA did hit at least 4 pipes so that could have worked the other way too.  All in all, a very entertaining game to watch. It was quite the night for lacrosse across the state, with some very interesting results.  Jupiter traveled north to Ponte Vedra and PV broke open a close game late with a closing 6-1 run to earn the 14-8 home win.  Nearby Creekside took down Nease 10-8 and Oak Hall won on the road at Fleming Island. And in the biggest thunderclap, Saint Andrew’s goes north and completely dominates Lake Highland 18-6. It looks like the season’s late stages will add a number of chapters to the book being written this year . . . and a dynamic playoff run.                The teams swapped goals within 20 seconds of each other to open the game.  At 8:17 Crowley took a Jimmy Harrington pass in stride on the low left wing and dashed towards the middle, finishing to the short side and just 20 seconds later Hassan went end to end off a turnover, cutting from the left towards the middle, hitting the low left corner.  STA responded twice before another minute had passed as Crowley twice beat his defender with face dodges on the left side and scoring on a similar low shot while falling down and STA ended the first up 3-1. STA then added to its’ lead with a four goal run to stretch the lead to 7-1.  Yovino took Crowley’s left GLE feed on the top left and his bullet found the top right corner at 11:19 and at 10:01 Khalil face dodged from right GLE towards the cage, finishing short side.  At 7:16 Khalil took an Ethan Martin pass from the top left all alone in the middle and he finished between Gulliver goalie Lucas Rego’s legs and at 3:29 Yovino and Crowley teamed up on EMO, with Yovino’s shot again hitting the top right side. It looked like that would be it for the quarter and the half but Gulliver managed to score twice in the last 10 seconds of the half to give them life.  With 6 seconds left Sam Steffens took an Enrique Falla crease feed all alone and he hit the right side for 7-2.  Then after a faceoff violation on the next draw, Hassan, utilizing a long pole, took the restart pass from Walker Gautier about 25 yards out and his lengthy shot beat Adler on the low right side for ‘Mastro Subaru goal of the week’ candidacy (if the film exists would someone please send it in to us) and we went to the half with STA holding the 7-3 lead.                STA scored the first three goals of the third period to extend the lead and basically made the rest of the game a back and forth one with no real threat to the lead.  Khalil and Yovino teamed up at 9:03 on EMO as Khalil finished off the left crease.  Brock Gonzalez then scored twice on down the middle cuts and Crowley fed him the first at 6:58 with Khalil feeding him at 3:30 and it was 10-3.  Gulliver responded twice with Hassan finishing off a Falla feed from up top on the left wing at 2:47 and with 56 seconds left Gautier took Hassan’s behind the net feed on the low left side to finish short side.  Khalil closed out the scoring 22 seconds later by again beating the defense low on the right side with a face dodge/spin combo to make it 11-5 after three. STA outscored Gulliver in the fourth 4-2 to make it a 15-7 final.  Crowley opened the quarter 36 seconds in with another low wing spin to the crease and Gautier responded after taking Pelletier’s up top feed in the middle at 9:10.  STA then ran off three straight as Ryan Izquierdo popped forward a faceoff and went straight down the middle at 8:59.  53 seconds later Khalil scored his fifth on the same basic right low wing face dodge and with 6:11 left Brennan Harhart beat his defender down the right wing and went all the way to the crease for the goal.  Hassan finished the game with 3:14 left as he dodged from the left wing to the middle before finishing to the low right corner for his fourth of the game. Some very impressive individual efforts last night, but all within the context of the team offenses.  A pleasant night and as with all Senior Nights, a celebration of a lot of hard work by all involved . . . and a chance to bask for proud parents. Hard to believe but we only have three more weeks to go in the regular season . . . get out to a game before you regret not doing so! STA travels to Vero Beach Tuesday for a huge Top 10 matchup while next Friday Gulliver travels to Belen for a probably preview of a Round of 16 FHSAA matchup.   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  STA 17-8 Shots:  STA  49-34 Shots on Goal:  STA 28-20 Turnovers:  Gulliver 15-12 Penalties:  2 each   Individual Statistics   STA Kevin Crowley  4G/3A Sam Khalil  5G/1A Louie Yovino  2G/1A Brock Gonzalez  2G Ryan Izquierdo and Brennan Harhart  1G each Jimmy Harrington and Ethan Martin  with 1A each Micheal Adler with 13 saves   Gulliver CJ Hassan  4G/1A Walker Gautier  2G/1A Sam Steffens  1G Enrique Falla  2A Trevor Pelletier  1A Lucas Rego with 13 saves   Thanks to Coach Crowley and Coach Piggot for speaking to me before and after the game