Check out the photo gallery with lots of great shots from the tournament – GALLERY Twenty-six girl’s lacrosse teams participated in the Father’s Day Invitational this year.   Three fields at Flagler Palm Coast High School featured non-stop action.

Several Georgia teams made the trip down to Palm Coast and showed the girls lacrosse scene in Georgia is making huge strides.  In the MS Atlantic division two Georgia Outlaw teams took the top seeds and made it to the finals.  In a show of solidarity for their club the girls decided to go home as “Co-Champions” of the event. In the Pacific division the Lax Maniax Young Guns had the top seed and faced another Georgia Outlaws team.  The Outlaws ended up taking that championship home as well.

In the HS Girls National division it was AIR KHOS, another Georgia team, who earned the top seed in their pool.  They played top seeded  St. Johns PAL Starz from the other pool and took yet another tournament championship home to the Peach State. In the HS Girls American division two Florida teams made it to the championship game.  It was the top seeded North Florida Wave who topped Central Florida’s Southern Rage for the championship. Last week it was the Stealth vs Snipers for the U9 Championship but this week the LaxRats and Braveheart made it to the final.  It a hotly contested championship game it was the LaxRats who took home the Championship T-shirts this week.  Palm Beach Revolution and Snipers also competed this week.  There are some very good U9 Clubs in Florida right now from all around the state.  The future is looking good.

In the U11 division the Georgia Thunder, who brought several good teams to this event, got past the Viera Vipers in the semi’s.  It was Palm Beach Revolution over the snipers in the other bracket to set up a SoFlo vs. Georgia final in which Georgia Thunder Prevailed. Palm Beach Revolution face the Tallahassee Terror in the U13 Lower division championship game.  This was a crowded division with nineteen teams in four separate pools.  Bay Area Sandsharks, WFL Orange, Palm Beach Revolution, and Tally Terror took the four top seeds at the end of play on Saturday. The Sandsharks beat Georgia’s Cherokee Xtreme in a close 4-3 game in the quarterfinals.  PB Revolution won 6-2 over the Viera Vipers, Tally Terror beat Gulf Coast Bandits 3-1, and the only upset in the quarterfinals was a 5-4 victory for the St. John’s PAL Starz over WFL.

PB Revolution and Terror would emerge to play in the championship game.  Palm Beach ended up with the 4-2 win and the T-Shirts. In the upper division for U13 it was, once again, Georgia’s Thunder that advanced to the finals where they faced the Snipers.  The Snipers squeaked by with a 7-6 victory.  The Swarm and PV Possums both looked strong in that division as well.

The U15 Rising Championship game was an intense thriller that came down to the final minutes.  It was Charleston South Carolina’s Top Left program that walked away with the win after outlasting the LaxRats in a 5-4 game.  Top Left was the underdog with the number two seed when they beat Palm Beach Revolution 10-5 in their quarterfinal game.  They advanced to beat a solid LCO team 8-6 to earn their spot in the championship game.  The LaxRats blanked Louisiana’s Red Stick LC 5-0 before beating the Gulf Coast Bandits 7-5 in the Semi-finals to reach the big game. The Championship game was fast, physical, and clean as both teams fought for control the entire game.  Good face off battles, great transition play, and tough defense were the order of the day for two team that nearly mirrored each other.  This one could have gone either way right down to the last goal.  Excellent summer club lacrosse championship.

The U15 Upper division saw another semi-final upset as the Georgia Blackhawks upset the Snipers 5-4.  WFL ran away from the Atlanta Coyotes 7-2 and advanced as the favorite to the championship game.  West Florida emerged as the Champions after holding off the Blackhawks 7-5. South Florida’s Stealth and Tampa Elite took their respective top seeds on Saturday in the U17 Lower.  Stealth would be upset by West Florida Lacrosse on Sunday in the semi-final and Tampa Elite was able to beat #2 seed EXCELL of South Carolina in the other semi-final to set up a Bay Area Championship.  Tampa Elite’s strong defense led the way to a 5-2 Championship win for Tampa Elite.

In the U17 Upper division the Palm Coast Wave and Bay Area Sandsharks took the top seeds with Tallahassee Terror and Atlanta Coyotes taking to the #2 seeds.  Terror upset the Palm Coast wave in the semi finals 8-4.  The Sandsharks held the top spot in the other semi-final holding off the Coyotes 6-5 The Bay Area Sandsharks are a big, fast, athletic team with lots of shooters.  They proved to be just too much for the Terror and controlled the final winning 6-3. LCO won the U19 Lower division after betting EXCELL in the semi-finals.  South Carolina’s Top Left won the other semi-final over Tampa Fire.

Ponte Vedra Possums and Georgia Revolution too the top seeds in pool play on Saturday with SoFlo Stealth and WFL taking the number two seeds.  The Semi-Finals suffered a lightning delay but the teams waited it  out.  After a two hour delay, the Georgia Revolution and the Stealth LC took the field to finish the final four minutes of their semi-final to find out who would face PV for the U19 Championship.  Stealth controlled the final four minutes and completed the upset to send the Revolution back to Georgia empty handed.  Kudos to those guys for sticking out the rain delay despite the long trip home. The final game of the tournament matched up the South Florida Stealth against the PV Possums in a great north vs. south match up.  PV proved to be the better team on this day as they controlled the face offs and a fast paced offense with fantastic shooting to away with a 7-4 win. Some of my take-aways from the weekend:

Georgia is on the move!  Four of the eight finalist in the girls’ divisions were from Georgia with three of them winning championships.  Three of the boys’ championship games featured Georgia teams and there were a bunch of good looking Georgia teams in this tournament. The Bay Area is catching up!  We were impressed with the sheer numbers of WFL teams who made the trip down to Palm Beach Last weekend.  This weekend we saw even more Bay Area teams and they are competitive.  The U17 Bay Area Sandsharks are a very good group.  Four of the Championship games featured Tampa Bay area teams with the U17 lower division an all Tampa final.

The Lax Rats are a group on the rise.  One championship, one runner up, and none of their teams had anything less than a three seed coming out of Saturday.  Tony Moreschi’s Jokers combined with a couple of other Central Florida groups and they looked good two weeks in a row.  Lots of little guys who can catch, throw, and shoot with both hands. Tallahassee Terror is back! I could be wrong, but I think it’s been a couple of years since I’ve seen a Tally Terror team in a Championship game.  They had two teams in the big game this weekend and they should enjoy home field advantage coming up with the Capital City Shootout.  Its great to see Tallahassee lacrosse looking so strong. Finally, I know better than to read too much into the summer club season.  Nobody is a full strength, lots of kids are off at Showcase camps, but it’s hard not to notice that PV looks really good.  The PV Possums have won two tournaments in a row and they are really clicking.  Miles Silva looks better than ever and rising sophomore Reid Smith is finding his stride on attack. The Father’s Day Invite was the biggest event I’ve attended this summer.  Other than a little bit of bad weather it was an awesome weekend and a great way to raise a bunch of money for the Wounded Warrior Project.