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#2 STA Uses 6-2 First Half to Defeat #5 Jupiter 13-9

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
  Finally, some relief from the rain!  Beautiful night, Top 5 matchup, late regular season game. Hard to believe but we are starting District Playoffs next week! Lobbied hard for a few songs for the STA time-out rotation and was rewarded . . . young fans need to check out The Spinners on what ever music service they use. Games People Play, Rubberband Man, Working My Way Back To You Babe, Could It Be I’m Falling In Love . . . look for some of that music on this week’s Media Poll! The crowd was a little light but I suspect the parents are gearing up for the playoff run too. Both coaches and teams coming in with similar goals, with one small exception.  Coach Crowley might not be concerned with the regular season winning streak but high school kids don’t always listen . . . pretty sure they were proud of it and wanting to lengthen it, particularly the seniors who haven’t lost in the regular season since March 22nd, 2014, at Lake Highland.  Not bad. Coach Loftus always looks at a season as a work in process that only ends with a state title . . . at least until he starts thinking of the next season.  As usual, a tough schedule to get ready.  And as my lax bud Wells always says ‘there’s no BCS in high school lacrosse anyway’.  Might as well play everyone. Of course, this late in the season the biggest concern is ‘No Injuries’. Looks like that one goal was achieved. Although Jupiter obviously would prefer a win, getting ready for next week is the bigger concern. In all likelihood, mission accomplished all around.   The game itself was very similar to Saturday’s STA – Lake Mary tilt.  STA getting out to an early lead, taking it into halftime and then holding off the Jupiter attempt to come back.  It was a four-goal lead at the half and Jupiter never got closer than three nor farther behind than five the entire second half.  STA got off more shots and won more faceoffs and with a few other things that added up to the winning margin.  The groundballs favored STA, but not by a lot.  Both goalies came up big at times (as an aside, I’m really going to miss Viper’s 50-yard laser outlet passes, can someone with the film maybe send me a few ‘best of’ clears?) and the interesting thing to me about that matchup is how we have two Division 1 recruits and one rightly gets noted all the time while the other tends to get overlooked at times but both are so much fun to watch. Another thing that is apparent when you watch STA is the athleticism of the defense, and just like last week they are pretty lethal on trail checks when you think you have them beat.  Jupiter’s offense is a pleasure to watch too.  They move the ball so well, and in tighter spaces too.  Michael Dean really stepped up this year in a role that he did not have to play before.  There are times when the sum of the parts is greater than the whole and this year Jupiter certainly showed that. One area that I thought hurt Jupiter early was the shooting in the first half; there were a number of good looks in the first half that uncharacteristically resulted in a wild shot that missed the net pretty badly and that’s not typical of a Jupiter game.  A few more hit the net and we might well have gone down to the wire.  Full credit to STA for again being able to protect a lead late without trying to ‘play a prevent style offense’; they continued to attack.  The STA offense produced 8 different goal scorers and that point was driven home by Louie Yovino when Wells and I talked to him after the game. There was a perception going into this season that STA would take a step back due to the losses from last year but that seems not to be the case and that means the second weekend in April might well see one of the best games in Florida history . . . fans might need to start to make sure they have that weekend left alone just in case . . .   The game started with a defensive struggle for the first five minutes as both teams took some time to settle down.  Finally, at 6:56 Sam Khalil took a pass behind the net and worked back up the right alley before he fired high to the short side for 1-0.  At 4:23 it went to 2-0 as Joey Guglielmo fed Kevin Crowley on a fast break from the middle and Crowley stepped down from the left wing, beating Viper low left.  23 seconds later, after a crease violation wiped off another STA goal, Kevin Justice found Dean on the right wing and he hit the low left corner to make it 2-1.  But 38 seconds after that Yovino finished off a fast break of his own off an Adler save, drifting towards the right alley and finishing with the right hand this time on the right side of the net.  And Crowley finished off the 1st with 51 seconds left as Khalil fed him on the move behind the net and Crowley beat the defense to the front, hitting the short side to make it 4-1 after one. Jupiter cut the lead to 2 on an EMO with 9:52 left as Alex Derrico found Ian O’Connor alone near the crease for the easy goal.  But STA responded twice in 19 seconds to make it 6-2.  Ethan Martin beat the short stick from behind the left of the cage, hitting the low left corner and long pole Brody Speno scooped up a turnover in his own end and went end to end, finishing with a perfect top right corner placement to end the half. 30 seconds into the third the lead was 7-2 as Khalil found Jimmy Harrington at the crease from right GLE for the low shot.  Jupiter responded with 2 goals in less than two minutes to make it 7-4.  At 10:00 Dean took a right GLE pass from O’Connor and stepped down on the right wing, hitting the low left corner and at 8:07 Dean beat the defender to the from behind the left side, finishing low right.  STA responded twice in a minute to make it 9-4.  At 7:21 Yovino found Nick Borodiak cutting to goal from the right side and his left behind skip pass hit him in stride for the one-timer.  Then at 6:39 Guglielmo dodged from top right to the middle with a spin move and his left hand hit the top right corner.  30 seconds later Jupiter responded on EMO as finished off on the left wing as Tanner Gabriel fed him down low for the right-hander.  Then at 4:22 Chris Cobo cut it again to 3 on a right alley dodge, going to the low left side but 59 seconds later Crowley face dodged off the left wing to the net and finished while falling to make it 10-6 after three. Jupiter killed off a late third period penalty and looked to regain momentum when Gabriel replicated Como’s goal with 10:50 left to play, but then the teams traded goals the rest of the way as Jupiter was just not able to make that one big play that would have turned momentum in their favor.  Yovino and Guglielmo teamed up at 7:53 to make it 11-7 as Yovino ripped a left wing feed.  At 6:35 Justice finished off an EMO pass from Gabriel on the low left.  Harrington responded at 5:13 off Khalil’s behind the net feed to the crease.  Dean cut it to 12-9 at 3:11 as Derrico found him on the crease but 11 seconds later Guglielmo put it away with a faceoff pop and fast break solo effort and that’s the way the game ended. A lot of fun to watch, on many levels. And a nice entry into the postseason. Both teams will have easy first-round games but both teams also have tough district finals. Let’s get ready to really rumble . . .   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  STA  15-9 Shots:  STA  40-29 Shots on Goal:  STA  23-18 Turnovers:  Jupiter  15-14 Penalties:  STA  4-2   Individual Statistics   STA Kevin Crowley  3G Joey Guglielmo  2G/2A Louie Yovino  2G/1A Jimmy Harrington  2G Sam Khalil  1G/3A Ethan Martin, Brody Speno and Nick Borodiak  1G each Michael Adler with 8 saves   Jupiter Michael Dean  4G Tanner Gabriel  1G/2A Kevin Justice and Ian O’Connor  1G/1A each Denver Aranda and Chris Cobo  1G each Alex Derrico  2A Viper Scheele with 10 saves   Thanks to Coach Crowley and Coach Loftus for talking to me before and after the game