At a high level the story for this one is pretty easy to write. One team played like they wanted to win One team played like they HAD to win Guess which one won? Oxbridge came out hot, running out to a 5-1 lead after the first and Jupiter never got closer than a 2-goal deficit the rest of the way. Their intensity showed in many ways.  Most of the key ground balls were won.  Domination at the faceoff. And a shooting display that was pretty darn impressive in person. Oxbridge has been looking to make a statement for two years now and last night they did . . . now we see how that carries over into the playoff season. Parity again raised it’s pretty face last night and when you don’t bring your ‘A’ game down here you are not going to come out victorious.   The statistics were not very revealing.  The Oxbridge faceoff advantage was neutralized by their turnovers.  Jupiter actually out shot them slightly.  But underneath there were some game-deciding items. Jupiter missed the net on a lot of right alley dodges that they had good looks at. Oxbridge stung corners. Jupiter’s settled offense did not get the ball inside too much and they did not get the fast break opportunities as much as they did against SA. And Ethan Randell outplayed Viper Scheele . . . Viper getting outplayed by any goalie is something I have to write about once every two years. In other words, not often. Randell saved 16 of 22 shots on goal . . . nearly 73%.  That wins a lot of games. Game ball . . . And the game balls were numerous last night. Zach Ranta and Robert Bayless combined for 6 goals.  The entire Oxbridge EMO offense, which went 5 for 7.  The Hayeks played a solid game and in the first half I thought Terrell Seabrooks came up with some of the most important possession plays of the early run.  Controlled aggression is a pretty good combination for a long pole. On the other side an interesting story was Kevin Justice, who played for Oxbridge before, led Jupiter with 3G/1A in his own version of a homecoming.  Tanner Gabriel played his usual top-notch all around game.  The Jupiter defense didn’t play badly; they were just outplayed by an offense that hit on all cylinders last night. And now we will have even more to look forward to late in the season.   Oxbridge took the early lead at 9:24 as Zach Ranta split the double up top, spun through two more defenders and hit the upper corner with the right hand.  Jupiter tied it at 1 at 7:30 as Gabriel went from up top down the right alley before going between Randell’s legs.  Less than a minute later OA took back the lead as Bayless face dodged on the left wing and his left-hand shot hit the top right corner.  At 5:35 the lead went to 2 as Benno Janssen scored on EMO, taking Bayless’ up top feed in the middle, turned right, and found the top left corner.  Bobby Kilian made it 4-1 at 3:12 as took advantage of a slow substitution by Jupiter by beating the defense down the left wing and his left hand rip caught pipe and dropped into the net.  Oxbridge then made it 5-1 with 1:48 left as Tyler Jerd capitalized on a rebound on the right crease to end the period. Jupiter took control of the possessions in the second, limiting OA to 3 shots, one on goal, and it led to Michael Dean taking a Gabriel feed in the middle from the right side and Dean stung the top left corner at 9:56.  With 5:47 left the lead was cut to 5-3 as Justice dodged down the right alley and his shot hit the low left corner.  OA regained the 3-goal advantage at 2:40 as Ranta drew the double team up top and he found Bayless in the middle, with a top left finish to make it 6-3 at the half. OA scored the key first goal of the second half at 10:24 as Liam Lisec face dodged off the left wing and his bounce shot kicked up on the right side.  Jupiter got that back at 9:14 as Justice took advantage of a rebound on the right wing when Randell lost sight of the ball and he hit the open net.  The lead was cut further as Justice found Dean on the left wing from behind left and Dean placed a rocket into the top right corner at 7:36. But that was as close as Jupiter was going to get. Oxbridge responded with three goals in 2:22, two of them on EMO, to stretch the lead back out.  Ranta took advantage of a back door cut down the right alley and Kilian found him from right behind in stride for the one-timer at 4:43.  65 seconds later Bayless went across the field from right wing to the left alley and he placed a perfect low left corner shot.  And with 2:21 left Riley Smith took an EMO up top feed from Ranta and his bullet hit the same spot as the previous goal.  Jupiter got one back before the end of the period on their own EMO as Justice was fed from behind right by Denver Aranda in stride and he hit the top short side for 10-6 after three. Oxbridge basically put the game away with two early goals in the fourth, both on EMO.  Ranta and Kilian replicated their first effort just 8 seconds into the fourth and Connor Davies went unassisted at 10:52 as he took a feed at GLE, worked his way out and hit the high short side to finish the scoring.  Jupiter’s late efforts were turned aside by Randell and Oxbridge ran clock most of the second half of the period when they could. And about 50 miles up the road, Jensen Beach knocked off #5 Vero Beach in overtime, staking their claim to Top 20 status.  Final game of the regular season?  Oxbridge travels to Jensen.  Something else to look forward to. Oxbridge is back in action on Friday at King’s Academy and Jupiter travels up north this weekend to take on both Ponte Vedra and Nease.  Should be fun for the fans up there!   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  OA 14-7 Shots:  Jupiter  33-30 Shots on Goal:  Jupiter  22-18 Turnovers:  OA  23-14 Penalties:  Jupiter 7-4   Individual Statistics   OA Zach Ranta  3G/2A Robert Bayless  3G/1A Bobby Kilian  1G/2A Benno Janssen, Tyler Jerd, Liam Lisec, Riley Smith and Connor Davies  1G each Ethan Randell made 16 saves   Jupiter Kevin Justice  3G/1A Michael Dean  2G Tanner Gabriel  1G/1A Denver Aranda  1A Viper Scheele made 6 saves   Thanks to Coach Ross and Coach Loftus for talking to me before and after the game.   Area fans, take note. Next Tuesday, the 15th: Jupiter hosts Benjamin Saint Andrew’s hosts McDonogh (Md.) Vero Beach hosts STA Pick one, no excuses . . . bring more than one friend!   And one more friendly reminder . . . on Sunday, at 9:00pm, ESPN debuts the documentary Fantastic Lies about the Duke Lacrosse fiasco.  I’ll certainly be watching.