Thanks to Jeff Horwitz for the Stoneman-Oxbridge pictures! If I get any submitted for St. Ed’s-Lake Mary I’ll add those too!
EDIT: I received three pictures from St. Ed’s-Lake Mary from Angie Herman and added them to this article; Thank you Angie!
Okay, it’s finally over . . .
6 games attended in a 22-hour period. Ended with the Florida Tech one-goal win over Lynn on a pretty crazy goal. The FIT long pole, in a 10-10 game, goes on the fast break and ends up getting trapped by multiple defenders about 5 yards right in front of the cage with his back to the goal and decides to shoot the shot over his back, and it happens to hit the net for the game winner!
I wanted to make sure I got to that game for a couple of reasons. First, I enjoy the game experience at the Lynn field. An all-seater set of stands set right on the field and easy parking. A great SSC matchup of two teams that embody what the conference is about. But most importantly, it was the last chance to see the Zugelter family, who have been fans of the site since the start. Austin was playing his likely last game in Boca (maybe a late draft pick for the Launch?) and knowing Tom and Joyce for so long I knew they would be at the game even if I hadn’t heard from them beforehand. Austin played a major role in one of my favorite games in the 5 years I’ve written here and it just felt like I wanted to get to Lynn in time. Of course I found them in the midst of the rowdy FIT section of the stands . . . a good rowdy group of cheering parents as the game came down to the wire.
We got caught up and just had a nice time talking. Austin is an excellent example of a kid who understood the recruiting process well. All of us who watched him in high school understood what a matchup nightmare he was and that he was easily a D1 talent. But he knew what he wanted to focus on academically and since FIT had the program he was mostly interested in he went the D2 route instead. BTW, he still is a matchup nightmare, and he will graduate this year with the career path right in front of him. Congrats to Austin and hopefully Tom will fill the extra time on his hands next season with some sort of role that keeps him in front of a sport he has come to love. And Joyce has promised me a recipe that I will like . . .
The first two games I covered in the article A Glorious Day in Florida Lacrosse! and yesterday morning the matchups got switched as Stoneman faced Oxbridge and Lake Mary faced St. Edwards in the second one. Stoneman and St. Edwards played in the first game on Friday and it frankly was no surprise to see that the teams that played early had an advantage over the teams that played the second game. You would not think that a two hour difference would be that impactful for the early game but both Oxbridge and Lake Mary certainly showed less energy in their play on Day Two. Throw in that in the scheme of things that the games probably meant more to Stoneman and St. Edwards given the time of the season and their previous games and the extra effort was there for them.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous . . . can’t use glorious TOO often . . . mid 60’s to start, blue skies with a little cloud cover and the perfectly defined south Florida version of breezy. Got warmer during the games but never to the point of where it was draining to the players or the fans. The only complaint was a lack of coffee given I didn’t get home the previous night until about 10:00pm. On Friday Coach Ross was worried about how much his team had left in the tank and his fears were realized as Stoneman, after an early two goal outburst by Oxbridge, slowly took over control of the game with a collection of long possessions and with less than a minute left in the first half took the lead for good at 4-3 as Daniel Sgammato continued his second half impact on Stoneman’s offense, giving them that extra option that was missing early in the season.
This was how the first half ended . . . kind of fun . . .
From that point forward, from the first minute of the second half, it was all Stoneman. They went over 7 minutes of possession to start the half before Oxbridge even had an offensive possession. By then it was 7-3 as Sam Bailin started to heat up. FOGO Kevin Horwitz was on his way to a domination of the faceoff circle. Oxbridge then switched up strategy at the dot and Terrell Seabrooks started to come through, with OA then scoring twice in a little over a minute on Jack Kilian’s two goals but that was pretty much it. Horwitz made the adjustments and Bailin came through twice to make it 9-5 and then pulled away in the fourth as 5 different Eagles scored. A last second score by Oxbridge made it a 12-7 final. Coach Burton kidded with me after the game about whether this was the signature win I was looking for, and it certainly looked like it. A proud father of Ryan, having made the trip down from upstate NY, confirmed the opinion. Nice to meet you Sir!
The second game was Lake Mary facing off with St. Edwards. Each team were the victims of one goal losses the previous day and both certainly were looking to avoid a 2-loss weekend. Wish I had some more time with St. Ed’s head coach Doug Bailey before the game since I’d like to understand more about the situation with the Vero kids’ transfers and how he’s integrated so many into the team offense and defense so quickly. Also felt bad for Danny Walsh on the sidelines since he had impressed me so much last year in the game I saw at West Boca. St. Ed’s has take a major leap this season and in my pre-season podcast with Mike Loveday I noted that they needed to be considered but that I needed to see early results first. Last year’s schedule was substantially beefed up this year and it was the right choice.
Lake Mary has been hot and cold all year and a lot of it is based on shooting and playing 48 minutes. They started the game yesterday as if on a mission as they ran out to a 3-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter as they held St. Ed’s in check. But then St. Ed’s really dug their heels in and they held Lake Mary scoreless for the next 29 minutes and by the time Lake Mary scored again it was already 7-3. While St. Ed’s was able to answer that one to make it 8-4 with 6:10 remaining they started to play hot potato with the passing and let Lake Mary get back into it. Two in 30 seconds at the 5 minute mark. St. Ed’s responded to make it 9-6 at 4:06 but then Lake Mary tied it up at 9 with 3 goals, each a minute apart and the tying goal at 1:16.
But in overtime it was Austin Schepers winning it with the long pole snipe just 15 seconds into the OT.
Lake Mary head coach Gary Robinson and I spoke after the game and his thoughts and mine were pretty much in line . . . why can’t his team play a full 48 minutes? I jokingly led with ‘Gary, maybe you should play 4-minute quarters’ and he asked if I was listening in on his post-game talk to the team. The trip back north would not have been a celebratory one. Playoffs are right around the corner and Lake Mary, just like so many years, is looking at a potential 2nd round matchup with Ponte Vedra. Which LM shows up? The 2015 version that played 48? Or the one last night that didn’t. There’s plenty of talent to give PV a run.
As for St. Ed’s a narrow escape from a game they should have closed out easier, but a very good win for the resume. Their best victory to date after a number of close call losses against teams at the top of the pecking order. Now comes the District playoff and a potential first round matchup with either Jupiter or Benjamin. If they get hot (Benjamin only won by 13-12 the last time and then did not play Jupiter) then a Final Four is not an impossibility.
And boy would that shake things up in the lacrosse community . . .
After the recaps with both coaches it was on to a Top 10 matchup at the Benjamin Middle School between Benjamin and Bishop Moore, which I notated like a regular coverage game and that will be its’ own article later today or early tomorrow, depending on how long I can stay up tonight!
Also yesterday our Florida teams continued their reverse Sherman March to the North . . .
First it was STA going 1 -1 on their Long Island swing as they took down St. Dominic 14-8 and later on Ponte Vedra crushed NC power Charlotte Catholic 20-8!
Wait to go boys!
And finally, dinner with my girlfriend at Anthony’s Coal Fired, the last ten minutes of the Isles game, and some March Madness . . .
The pillow felt really good last night . . .
But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.