Old money versus new money.  One of the most historically written themes over the years.  Or call it royalty versus revolutionary. Doesn’t matter. Last night we witnessed the equivalent of this in the lacrosse world. Royalty hung on . . . but sometimes the battle leads to future conflict. The story of last night was two-fold. One was an incredible game of lacrosse between two terrific teams playing at or near their peak, providing the enormous crowd in attendance a memory that will last a long time. The other is that a program on the rise announced they are not a one-season pony and that we will likely have a new rivalry in our area to look forward to each year. And praise to both.     The game itself was basically a three-part play, the early storming of the castle by the uprising, the initial repulse and steady push back by the castle holder and then the climactic battle for it all, with a back and forth parry and riposte, leaving one team finally taking home the victory. The stars came out last night, both on the field and in the stands (Mayor Micheal Udine of Parkland was in attendance). For the Scots it was Nick Iznaga with four second half goals, Davis Diamond with two fourth quarter scores and Brandt Guldin with the eventual game winner on a gutsy cage drive off a faceoff win.  It was Alex Newhouse going 16-19 on the faceoffs and the long poles keeping Stoneman from ever getting their transition game going. For the Eagles it was Blake Israel with 3G/1A (all in the fourth quarter), AJ Ferraro with the type of defensive performance that will be rewarded with plenty of playing time at Navy, goalie Jason Wyner with NINETEEN saves, many in close and the rest of the offense that managed to make a fourth quarter run that many in attendance thought was a long shot. And on the sidelines, the grizzled veteran and the young program builder, swapping masterstrokes of strategy.  Offensive looks to take advantage of strengths and driving their teams to a peak performance, getting everything they could out of their personnel. If anyone gets the inclination put together a highlight video from the game and place the song Sons Of War by Two Steps From Hell in the background and I’ll gladly publish it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiZBffKZQ40 This sport gives us drama at the high school level that no other does and we got to see that once again last night.  And fortunately a LOT of people got to see this one.     The First Thrust SA came out early with possessions as they outshot SD 11-7 in the first but SD goalie Wyner was up to the task with five first quarter saves and Douglas took the early lead at 9:44 as Tyler Gaffney took an Austin Figas feed from the top left wing on the low left and ripped the short side shot past SA goalie Harris Feldman (Feldman only saw 14 shots on goal but his saves came at opportune times).  SD then stretched the lead to 2-0 at 6:10 a Max Buckner took Hunter Bell’s left wing feed as he curled out from behind the left side and he hit the top short side.  Peter Dykas cut the lead to one at 1:44 on his own curl from the left side, drifting back a little before unleashing to the upper right corner for 2-1 but with only 3 seconds left in the first Figas took Bell’s behind the left side feed on the wing before stepping down and hitting the top left corner corner to give SD the 3-1 lead after the first.     The Counterthrust SA’s Dykas cut the lead to one again only 27 seconds into the second as he took advantage of the EMO (three minute un-releasable stick penalty) to take the top left wing feed from Nick Iznaga on the low left wing before firing to the low left side.  Then the SA and SD defenses stepped up and held both offenses off for rest of the second quarter and we went to halftime with SD leading 3-2.  But SA clearly had started to take over the tempo of the game as they were conceding on the clear in order to keep SD from getting the odd man rush and when SD got off a shot it was starting to miss the net.  SD’s defense came up big on the 3-minute penalty, limiting SA’s EMO to the one goal. The third quarter was basically all SA as they kept lengthy possessions and forced SD’s defense to use up a lot of energy, and when SD had the ball they would force out to keep SD from having any lengthy possessions of their own.  And it paid off. At 9:49 Iznaga took over the SA offense and was given the space to do so by the alignment.  His right wing split dodge was followed by a right-hand shot to the low left corner to tie the game.  Then he gave SA their first lead at 5:32, working the right lower side, getting to GLE and splitting 2 defenders before finishing from the crease area for 4-3 and just at 3:27 he finished the natural hat trick as he backed in on the left wing before firing low and giving the Scots the 5-3 lead after 3. At this point SD had gone basically 24 minutes without a goal and had gotten only 5 shots on goal in that period and it was looking like the die was cast.  

  The Parry and the Riposte This quarter could have stood by itself.  18 total shots, 13 on goal, 9 goals.  And finally some competition on faceoff wins.  And both teams getting gut checks that were answered affirmatively . . . At 10:41 SD broke through as Ryan Brodskey took Blake Israel’s up top feed on the right wing and powered one past Feldman to make it 5-4 and only 44 seconds later Israel tied it up off a behind right feed from Bell on the low right wing as he went between the legs and suddenly we were tied at 5. The home crowd then went into a frenzy at 7:15 as Bell dodged from the left wing to the middle and his low shot put SD up 6-5. But less than a minute later Davis Diamond worked the left wing and maneuvered from GLE to the front before tying the game at 6:36 with the right hand.  That was followed at 5:55 as Iznaga gave SA the lead back as he moved from the left wing to the middle, hitting the low right corner.  And at 3:26 Diamond regained the two-goal lead as cut in from the right side to the middle before his jump shot found the low right corner (SA’s Keith Mahler made the pass out to Davis after returning to the game from a bad fall chasing a missed shot). Stoneman did not go away as Israel cut the lead to 8-7, taking a Brodskey feed from right GLE up top and stepped down, beating Feldman with the bounce shot but only 10 seconds later Guldin made his mad dash down the left wing to give what should have been the back breaker.  Israel was able to score the EMO goal with four seconds left to make the final 9-8 but there wasn’t enough time to make one last uphill charge.     For Saint Andrew’s the continuation of it’s ascent back to the elite of the sport and for Stoneman the end of the first chapter of what can be it’s own lengthy publication.  As for the fans of both sides a better way to spend a Thursday would be hard to find.  Thanks to both teams for giving us a great ride and the best of luck to the Stoneman seniors as they head off to their next stages in life!   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  SA 16-3 Shots:  SA 46 – SD 27 Shots on Goal:  SA 28 – SD 14 Turnovers:  SD 15 – SA 13 Penalties:  SA 3 – SD 2   Individual Statistics   SA Nick Iznaga  4G/1A Peter Dykas and Davis Diamond  2G each Brandt Guldin  1G   SD Blake Israel  3G/1A Hunter Bell  1G/3A Austin Figas and Ryan Brodskey  1G/1A each Tyler Gaffney and Max Buckner  1G each   Jason Wyner made 19 saves for Stoneman and Harris Feldman made 6 saves for SA   Thanks to Coach Seaman and Coach Burton for talking to me before and after the game!