In what can only be described as a spanking, Boys’ Latin showed the approximately 800 fans in attendance why they are Inside Lacrosse’s #1 high school team in the nation. 12 different BL players scored in a well balanced offensive attack, with Colin Heacock (UMD recruit) and Greg Sheetz (Hobart recruit) each scoring twice. Conor Whipple led SA with two second half goals and Nick Ranta and Grant Mahler also scoring for SA. Last year’s game came down to a one goal last second result; this game was never in doubt after the first quarter as BL jumped out to a 5-1 lead, and stretched it out to 10-2 at halftime. BL outscored SA 4-2 in the second half as BL played a very conservative ball control throughout the second half. The stats weren’t that far apart except for the save % (neither St. Andrew’s goalie had good games while the BL goalies did) but that only tells part of the story. Most of SA’s shots were outside efforts and they had a very hard time breaking down the BL defense. On the other hand BL’s offense was able to penetrate and SA’s goalies were facing more difficult looks, particularly on feeds from behind the goal where the BL player had time to extend and wind up for drop down shots. No high school goalie is going to save a decent number of those types of looks.

By my count the statistics were: Faceoffs: BL 12 – SA 10 Shots: BL 33 – SA 29 Shots on Goal: BL 23 – SA 15 Turnovers: BL 17 – SA 20 So statistically the teams looked fairly close but they didn’t tell the biggest story of the game, which was the quality of looks that BL got which SA didn’t. BL’s offensive patterns showed more off ball movement than SA’s did. SA relied too much on one-on-one dodging and the EMO chances were sluggish. As the lead mounted it was clear the SA offense tried too hard to catch up quickly and the game got away from them. The schedule does not get any easier for SA as they travel Thursday to Jupiter to play a rematch of last year’s state semifinals in what will also be a tough test. Boys’ Latin returns to Maryland to play Penn Charter, Gonzaga (DC) and Culver Academy in their next three games as the northern lacrosse season gets fully underway.