Benjamin is on their way to Bradenton.  Last year’s state semifinalist held off a second-half rally to defeat a game Boca Raton team to replicate last year’s Final Four berth as they continue on the path towards their first varsity-level state championship.  They will face St. Thomas Aquinas, winners of their regional final with Barron Collier, in the 7:00pm match-up for the right to play for the state championship against either Lake Highland Prep or Ponte Vedra. This game took on a character of its own.  In the first game Benjamin jumped out early and often, putting the game away pretty much by halftime and never letting Boca Raton into a rhythm.  They won that game with a spread out offense and rapid passing and cutting to the middle of the Boca defense, while Boca offensively made key mistakes when scoring opportunities popped up.  Although Benjamin was able to get inside a few times early in the game most of their offense shifted to the perimeter and early in the game took advantage of the right alley dodge in particular, scoring a number of times that way as Boca was focusing on taking away the middle feeds.  Boca played a much more patient offense and protected the ball a lot better but hurt themselves a few times with outside shots that weren’t as open as they first seemed.  Each team also tried at times to isolate a key offensive component and so some of the game was played at 5 on 5, but that strategy was pretty much minimized in the second half.

 

  In this game the first quarter played out in a similar fashion, as Benjamin was able to take a 5-1 lead, which they held onto through the second quarter to lead 7-3 at halftime.  But that was an improvement for Boca over the first game when it was 9-2 at halftime, and unlike the first game, Boca’s defense had started to settle down earlier, allowing their offense time to chip away.  Benjamin tried to play a patient, ball possession offense in the second half and Boca took advantage during the third quarter, as momentum swung.  That carried over into the fourth, as Boca was able to draw within one goal with 8 minutes left, but then Benjamin’s offense reasserted itself and was able to take advantage of a key call with about 6 minutes left to score the insurance goal they needed, and then killed off a 2-man advantage in the last minute to hold on for the win. All in all, exactly how a regional final should play out.  One team jumps out early, opponent climbs back, and winning team making a few more plays down the stretch to win the game. Grit and great plays, key saves by both sides and too bad someone has to go home. Another game that both sets of fans will remember a long time. As they should.

 

The game started quickly for Benjamin as Colin O’Hare opened the scoring with a highlight reel finish, taking Jeremy Stauffer’s cross-crease feed on the right side of the net and finishing behind-the-back into the lower left corner at 10:32 to make it 1-0.  Boca’s Nick McCabe got that one back at 8:36 as he ran down the right alley, leaned in towards the goal and got off a right-handed shot into the left upper corner of the cage to make it 1-1.  Just about a minute later Benjamin regained the lead as the tandem of Ryan Sylvester and McKenna Johnston once again teamed up, with Johnston taking Sylvester’s up top feed on the high right wing and sent a left-hand bullet into the left, upper corner to make it 2-1.  Benjamin continued the up tempo and at 6:12 O’Hare scored unassisted on his own right alley dodge, beating his defender to the net and scoring into the low left corner.  Then at 4:56 they stretched the lead to 4-1 as Johnston took advantage of a Boca turnover and repeated the right alley dodge move and shot.  After a few changes of possession Andrew Packer added one of his own with just 29 seconds left in the quarter.  Packer worked his way out from behind the left side of the net and was able to maneuver on the lower left wing and spun left to get to the crease area, getting off a right-hand shot with the defense draped on him.  To add insult, Boca goalie Collin Pepper looked to be injured on the play and Boca had to replace him with Ryan Clinton for the last 29 seconds.  Fortunately for Boca, Pepper was able to shake off the knock and come back for the start of the second. Boca got one back to start the second, with Christian Mauro scoring unassisted at 9:03 as he got inside the defense from the right side and took a bounce shot that kicked up high into the right, top corner to make it 5-2.  But Benjamin responded with two goals in less than a minute to take their biggest lead of the game.  At 7:25, O’Hare took Stauffer’s left wing feed down near GLE and stepped out and got off a right-hand shot that find the net on the far side, and at 6:29 the lead went to 7-2 as Stauffer found the lower left corner off his own right alley dodge and the game started to look like a repeat of the regular season game. But that was not to be.

After a time out, Boca settled down defensively and at 3:59 Kyle Frey scored unassisted off a scrum in front of Benjamin goalie Anthony Cicio and Frey managed to get off what a hockey player would call a snap shot and the ball managed to crawl along the ground and into the net.  Boca then pressed to cut the lead further in the second but they were thwarted and the half ended at 7-3.  But the feel of this game was very different than the Benjamin lead a few weeks ago and you could sense that Boca had a run left in them. The offenses for both teams statistically looked good in the half as Benjamin put ALL 9 of their shot attempts on goal in the half and Boca hit with 7 of 9. The game momentum continued to slowly shift in Boca’s favor in the third, although it never turned into fast-rolling snowball.  At 7:34, Boca’s Parker Giarratana was able to get a small opening as he curled from behind the net on the left side and found the net with the right-hand (one of the highlights of the game for me was watching the times when Parker and Benjamin’s All-American defenseman Jerry O’Connor were isolated one-on-one, as both are masters of the subtlety of their positions) to cut the lead to 7-4. Johnston responded for Benjamin to regain the 4-goal lead at 3:31, unassisted, as he worked his way into the middle from the right wing and he fired a left-hand shot into the upper left corner.  Benjamin was held to only two shots on goal in the third and was outshot 12-4.  And it finally paid off for Boca as they finished out the period with two late goals to cut the lead to 8-6 after three.  Taking advantage of a rare penalty called in the first three periods (none in the first half for either side), Brad Singer was able to step down from the upper left wing and overpower Cicio with a bullet to the lower right corner, with Cicio getting a piece of it but not enough.  Then with only 4 seconds on the clock Clinton took Mauro’s lower left wing pass higher up the wing and hit the top right corner to send us to the fourth.

Game on.

Boca continued their comeback with Mauro taking advantage of his defender over-committing on a loose ball, taking an open path down the right alley before going low to the left corner with the right hand and it was 8-7 with nearly 8 minutes still left to go.  At this point Benjamin’s defense stiffened up and the Benjamin offense took advantage of a tiring Boca defense to keep possession and look for opportune shooting opportunities but Boca goalie Pepper picked the right time to get hot and the Benjamin offense was not able to cash in.  Finally, Benjamin got a bit of a break on a 50/50 call (at least in my opinion) and took advantage of a man-up situation as Will Nicklaus took advantage of a late recognition by Boca’s defense off the restart as he slowly crept out from behind the left side of the net, getting off the short shot before he was checked and the lead was again 2.  The goal came at 5:29 and with the way the defenses had tightened up for both sides it was a back-breaker. Both teams traded possessions as Boca was firing from outside their comfort zone and Benjamin was looking for long possessions without a lot of success.  Boca was able to draw a few penalties late in the game but settled for outside shots that Cicio was able to handle and the clock ticked down on Boca’s season.  Unfortunately there were a few late hits that really should not have occurred that marred the last seconds of the game.  Kids, please, the self-discipline you have to get to this position needs to carry through the WHOLE game.  Just like in life.  I watched Coach Holly the last few seconds of the game and it was clear to me all the way across the field he was not happy with the late hits either.     For Benjamin, a return trip to the Final Four.  Well earned, and a far cry from how the season started.  A marvelous coaching job by Shane Rye to turn the season around and find a way to win games.  We wish you the best of luck Friday. For Boca Raton, a tough close to the best season in the school’s history.  A season that should yield dividends down the line.  Surviving the District of Death and the wins over two final four teams.  Kids, keep your heads up.  You had a heck of a ride.  And to Austin, let’s see if you can work your magic for the Seminoles too! As we say in all our playoff articles, we wish the Boca Raton seniors all the best as they go on to the next stage of their lives and hope that all of your life’s goals come to fruition.  And for Coach Holly, a couple of pints at English Tap . . . maybe some other coaches will join us too. Time to get ready for Bradenton. Four great teams, two great games. Party time!   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  Benjamin 12-7 Shots:  25 each Shots on goal: Boca 17 – Benjamin 16 Turnovers:  Benjamin 17 – Boca 13 Penalties:  Boca 7 – Benjamin 5   Individual Statistics   Benjamin Colin O’Hare and McKenna Johnston  3G each Jeremy Stauffer  1G/2A Andrew Packer and Will Nicklaus  1G each Ryan Sylvester  1A   Boca Raton Christian Mauro  2G/1A Nick McCabe, Kyle Frey, Parker Giarratana, Brad Singer and Ryan Clinton  1G each   Anthony Cicio had 10 saves for Benjamin and Collin Pepper had 7 saves for Boca Raton   Thanks to Coaches Rye and Holly for spending time with me before and after the game.