In my youth, as a sports fan, the only really ingrained two days on the sports calendar were ‘pitchers and catchers’ and ‘opening day’.  Neither had a fixed day, although Opening Day tended to be April 1st. We are about 10 days from when Pitchers and Catchers will report. But I can’t really remember hearing anyone say that term for a long time.  Of course I hang around the lacrosse world, but the paradigmatic shift is striking. Goalies and long poles?  Middies and attack?  Some combo of the four positions. Let’s go with Middies and Goalies.  Slides off the tongue better . . . and sounds cooler than ‘the first day FHSAA allows high schools to hold a practice’.   Last night witnessed two teams that can be considered ‘works in progress’, albeit at different stages in the growth curve.  Boca Raton, coming off its’ finest season in their history, is replacing their entire starting close defense and you would have thought that would be it but as Coach Holly told me after the game they will be working on the whole package.  Spanish River is now in the hands of new head coach Zander Maslow, who is coming off a 10-8 season and faced the loss of his top player to transfer. There is certainly talent, but a lot of it is very young.  So SR is looking at getting a number of players experience as the season goes on. Boca Raton All-American Nick McCabe was not dressed for the game due to a disciplinary action so Boca Raton was missing its’ catalyst and it showed in the first quarter as both teams struggled with first game jitters.  Turnovers were frequent as the teams struggled to get a rhythm.  Boca finally took the lead with 4:42 to go in the first as they capitalized on SR’s first penalty, with Zach Frey picking up a loose ball on right goal line extended, stepped out a little and fired left-handed in the upper short side. At 2:48 SR tied it, also on the EMO, as freshman Alex Ehrenstein took advantage of a rebound on the right side of the cage, placing a low shot in. Boca’s offense then took control of the game in the second quarter as they were able to control the faceoffs the rest of the game.  Frey scored his second at 10:03 while short-handed as LSM Jesse Devoursney took a turnover the length of the field and found Frey all alone on the left crease.  At 8:44 Parker Giarratana maneuvered the left wing, with a double dodge before firing right handed between SR goalie Jake Diamond’s legs for 3-1.  Just 30 seconds late Logan Kigar took a feed right in front from Frey and placed it low, also drawing a penalty on the play.  Boca then stretched the lead to 5-1 a few seconds after the penalty was up on Ryan Clinton’s solo effort after picking up a turnover as he ran down the right alley before finishing to the low left side.  Two late goals lifted the score to 7-1 at halftime.  At 1:57, on another EMO, Clinton took Giarratana’s top side feed on the right wing and he fired a low shot past Diamond.  He then completed the natural hat trick with 31 seconds left as he dodged to the right crease and going waist high on the short side. The teams traded goals in the third as Spanish River scored at 8:46 as Turner Walker scored unassisted beating Boca goalie Collin Pepper from the middle of the field.  He dodged in from the left wing and placed the right hand shot waist high on the right side.  At 6:55 Boca got that one back as Giarratana picked up a loose ball after a crossbar shot and placed it in the open net and the score was 8-2 going into the 4th. SR scored twice in the fourth to make it an 8-4 final.  Jake Bernstein cut the lead to 8-3 at 8:35 as he fired right-handed to the lower left corner off a right alley dodge and with 26 seconds left Colton Stanger completed the scoring off a long pass that skipped through to him on the right crease, and he easily finished the open look in front. A solid win in District to start the season.  But still a work in progress. Boy, it’s good to have the season going . . .   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  Boca 14-2 Shots:  Boca 29-17 Shots on Goal:  Boca 14-13 (a strength of SR was their percentage of shots that hit the goal) Turnovers:  Boca 21 – SR 19 Penalties:  Boca 6 – SR 5   Individual Statistics   Boca Zach Frey – 2G/1A Ryan Clinton – 3G Parker Giarratana – 2G/1A Logan Kigar – 1G Jesse Devoursney – 1A   Spanish River Alex Ehrenstein, Turner Walker, Jake Bernstein and Colton Stanger all scored 1G   Collin Pepper had 9 saves for Boca and Jake Diamond had 6 saves for SR.   Boca is back in action tonight, hosting Pine Crest while Spanish River travels tonight to South Fork Thanks to both Coach Holly and Coach Maslow for talking to me after the game!