Three weeks into the season and this past week really shook things up . . .
LOTS of big games that impacted the rankings.
The type of week that makes it a little harder to come up with that really good song that i can use to introduce the week.
But then, using a particularly inspired piece of memory . . .
A film that I saw in the movie theater in 1969.
If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_It’s_Tuesday,_This_Must_Be_Belgium
Ten games on Tuesday made an impact on the lacrosse scene.
That’s actually Michael Constantine in this scene, who recent movie goers recognize as Gus from the My Big Fat Greek Wedding Movies.
A pretty funny scene as an American and a German who fought the battle in WWII at this monument recall it so differently.
Of course, Tuesday wasn’t the only big day.
Thursday had 9 games with impact.
I tried to find something for Thursday but came up short . . .
Do you know there is a web site that actually let’s you check these things? Ranker.com actually lets you search for songs about Thursday!
Saturday also contributed with 5 big games
It’s a lot easier to find a Saturday song . . .
Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting by Elton John
Saturday In The Park by Chicago
But lets go with the Saturday song by the Bay City Rollers
https://youtu.be/dBn2ux5vRHk
In retrospect, pushing the Bay City Rollers on U.S. music fans as if they were the second coming of The Beatles was one of the worst PR decisions of that time . . .
Looking back on the past week here’s the key games that occurred:Monday
Oak Hall doubles up Bartram Trail 14-7
Tuesday
Belen Jesuit rebounds with a big 10-7 win over Boca Raton
Nease eases past Fleming Island 15-8
Benjamin travels north and beats Jensen Beach 9-6
Lake Mary trounces Seminole 11-2
Ponte Vedra glides by Bolles 18-8
Saint Andrew’s gains revenge on Oxbridge 10-6
University School upsets Columbus Catholic in OT 10-9
St. Edward’s (Vero South) defeats Vero North 17-4
WT Dwyer nips Saint John Paul II 7-5
Wellington defeats Cardinal Newman 11-6
Wednesday
Ponte Vedra and Maclay are rained out
Pine Crest doubles up Cardinal Gibbons 18-9
Thursday
St. Edward’s takes down Jensen Beach 13-8
Martin County edges WT Dwyer 10-8
St. Thomas Aquinas gets past Stoneman Douglas 13-7
Friday
Cardinal Mooney travels northeast and takes down Buchholz 11-9
Fort Myers beats Bishop Verot for the first time since 2009 at the club level 12-11
Lake Highland Prep rebounds by easily beating Lake Mary on the road 15-3
Melbourne Central Catholic over Seminole 11-5
Bishop Moore continues their rise, taking down Nease on the road 13-8
Newsome sends a message by comfortably beating HB Plant 13-7
Oak Hall continues it’s climb by easily handling Berkeley Prep 11-5
Ransom Everglades defeats Columbus Catholic in a big turnaround from last year 14-6
Saint Andrew’s rallies in the second half to beat a stubborn Boca Raton 12-8
Saturday
Benjamin edges Saint John Paul II in a thriller (story to follow separately)
Buchholz gets past Creekside 11-7
Kell (Georgia) smacks Maclay 14-4
Saint Andrew’s goes to Martin County and comes away with the 14-9 victory
Tampa Jesuit gets past Gulf Coast 17-14 in a shootout
Now, let’s go back to last week’s Top 20
#1 – St. Thomas Aquinas – convincing win over LHP gives them the nod
#2 – Ponte Vedra – too bad the LHP game is not likely to be made up
#3 – Saint Andrew’s – too big road wins over Top 10 teams slightly edges out Oxbridge, will be moot Tuesday as they get together in Boca
#4 – Oxbridge – big win at Jupiter, Tuesday will be great
#5 – Jupiter – nice win over Stoneman before the Oxbridge loss
#6 – Maclay – moves up after a few nice road wins. Wednesday lets us know how real they are
#7 – Lake Mary – looking dominant so far
#8 – Lake Highland Prep – need to step it up
#9 – Benjamin – offense needs to get it together, the exact opposite of last year
#10 – HB Plant – looking just like last year – next Friday at Newsome is a big time game
#11 – St. Edwards – yes, they are starting to take some of them down. Very impressive win over Gulliver
#12 – Bishop Moore – can’t overlook that start now
#13 – Creekside – one goal shy of Top 10
#14 – Stoneman Douglas – needs to regroup and find a way to get a big win
#15 – Newsome – this is it if they can’t beat Plant
#16 – West Orange – moves up a little with the big road win at Martin County
#17 – Seminole – is the start for real? We’ll know Tuesday
#18 – Gulliver Prep – might be a little generous here, needs to get back on track
#19 – Bolles – road win over Oak Hall gains the respect
#20 – Boca Raton and Cardinal Gibbons – just so I can reward their 5-0 starts and nice wins
Also considered:
Barron Collier
Oak Hall
Gulf Coast
Berkeley Prep
Pine Crest
Yeah, there will be some movement . . .
But first, let’s celebrate the one year anniversary of the Lacrosse News Network tripleheader last year at Oxbridge with this final score from yesterday . . .
You just knew I was getting this in here!
If you are a Cornell fan . . . (fill in the blank)
Next week’s schedule is a little light early in the week and picks up laterMonday
No real impact game
Tuesday
Barron Collier hosts Community School
Creekside hosts Ponte Vedra
Ransom Everglades hosts NSC-University School in a game of two teams that are exceeding expectations right now
Wednesday
Cardinal Newman hosts IMG . . . I’m listing this because frankly I don’t know why they are playing
Martin County hosts American Heritage/Boca
Thursday
Jupiter hosts WT Dwyer
Ponte Vedra hosts Nease
St. Edward’s hosts Benjamin in a really interesting benchmark game
Friday
Boca Raton hosts SJP II
Fleming Island hosts Buchholz
HB Plant hosts Berkeley Prep
Jensen Beach hosts Martin County
Lake Mary hosts St. Thomas Aquinas
Saint Andrew’s hosts IMG . . . SA gave IMG their only loss last year
Stoneman Douglas hosts Gulliver Prep
Tampa Jesuit hosts a reeling Maclay
West Orange hosts Montverde Academy
By the way, I’m not covering any of those . . . I made a promise to see Immokalee this year and Calvary Christian hosts them this night. Last season CCA’s Adam Bond and Immokalee’s Scott Rickard helped me to my first victory as a head coach at the FLN Senior All Star Game and they got along so well with each other they decided to play this season. So that’s my place Friday!Saturday
Barron Collier hosts Belen Jesuit
Ponte Vedra hosts IMG
Gulf Coast hosts American Heritage/Plantation
An aside
Yesterday I attended the Benjamin – SJP II game up at Palm Beach Gardens and sat right near a group of fathers for Benjamin who were WAY over the top in their yelling at the field. My particular favorite was the two dads who managed to yell within one second of each other to the Benjamin ball carrier . . . “Take it behind the net” and “Pull it out” . . . while the kid was well beyond the restraining line.
Make up your minds.
And ENOUGH with the yelling at the refs. I’m friendly with a LOT of Benjamin parents. Coach Rye is a great guy who does not stand dirty play and the team has a bunch of really nice kids.
The yelling fathers are an embarrassment to everyone. Knock it off.
As I’ve said before, until you are trained, certified, and reffed a game or two, you are not as knowledgeable as you think.
And another thing. On the field the refs are living in a two dimensional world, the fans have the benefit of height, hence a third dimension. And the fans don’t have to live in real time either.
If they had referee experience they wouldn’t yell because they’d appreciate the difficulty.
Watching this game from the stands I can tell you that it was one of the hardest games to ref I’ve witnessed in the five years I’ve been doing this. It was fast-paced, physical and a smaller field. Decision-making time was compressed. And it was a real back and forth game with a lot of tension.
To the fathers who can’t control yourself . . . learn to do so . . . before I start taking this to the next level with videotape.
You’ve been warned.
And now the Underdog Upset of the Week
In reality, it was not easy to pick one this week.
One that came to mind was the Fort Myers win over Bishop Verot but those teams have played so many close games over the years it’s hard to call it that, even though it was Fort Myer’s 1st win over BV since 2009.
Another that I thought of was the Lake Mary-LHP game, not because of who won but because the score seemed so out of whack with what I thought would be a great game.
And then I looked at what happened to Columbus Catholic this week, losing to both University School and Ransom Everglades. Both of those schools had tough years last year. And both have turned it around some this year on the scoreboard.
So let’s go with Ransom winning over CC since last year’s score was not very close.
Again, not a lot to choose from this week.
The past week was a sad one if you are a Professional Wrestling fan
George ‘The Animal’ Steele, Nicole Bass, Bruiser Bedlam, Chavo Guerrero Sr. and
Ivan Koloff. The Russian Bear.
The man who was given the great honor of being the one who dethroned Bruno Sammartino (yes, it’s pre-determined 99% of the time . . .)
In later years (this was 1971) Koloff and Sammartino would talk about how worried they were that Madison Square Garden might riot when this happened (Sammartino was the title holder for 8 years) and that they were shocked how the crowd actually reacted, with pretty much complete silence, as no one expected it. Sammartino had asked the promoter at the time to ‘lose’ the belt because he was burned out and needed time off. Koloff was actually a French-Canadian who ended up being a Minister after he stopped wrestling.
RIP Ivan.
How about a little lacrosse inspiration?
Quint Kessenich talking about how to improve as a player.
Coaches . . . share this with your kids!
Okay, last week it was guitar riffs.
This week I’m introducing the new Top 20 with an excerpt of the great Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull as he plays a snippet from Thick As A Brick
Jethro Tull was truly a marvelous band and deserving of a lot more remembering today.
Okay, Here We Go
This Week’s New Top 20!
#1 – St. Thomas Aquinas – continues to beat quality opponents
#2 – Ponte Vedra – LHP and Maclay cancellations are really unfortunate
#3 – Saint Andrew’s – defeats Oxbridge and grinds out wins over good Boca and Martin County teams
#4 – Oxbridge – loses to SA but it was a pretty good game. Braedon Rupp is really impressing me.
#5 – Jupiter – treading water right now, second half schedule is brutal
#6 – Lake Highland Prep – what is the real team here? The bad loss at STA or the huge take down of Lake Mary? The schedule gets pretty soft until Benjamin comes to town on 3/10
#7 – Benjamin – another team with a back-loaded schedule. Winning the games but not quite firing on all cylinders right now
#8 – St. Edwards – probably getting ahead of myself here, 3/2 at home with Benjamin is the true test so far
#9 – Bishop Moore – continues a solid year, not a lot ahead of them until the final four games, which are tough
#10 – Newsome – they did beat Plant, and convincingly. The rest of the schedule is frankly awful, this is as high a they can go and they better win convincingly to keep here
#11 – Lake Mary – I’m going to see if LHP was a fluke
#12 – West Orange – The Martin County road win looks better, no real tests until late in the season so hard to move up further for now
#13 – Stoneman Douglas – the tough early schedule is behind them now, time to get the wins
#14 – Oak Hall – one goal shy of undefeated
#15 – Pine Crest – Coach Harris again doing it quietly, 2 goal loss at Stoneman the only blemish
#16 – Maclay – terrible weekend in Georgia, needs to get some good wins, very vulnerable right now
#17 – HB Plant – pretty much needs to run the table to stay in the Top 20
#18 – Gulliver Prep – treading water this week, Stoneman road game can really help
#19 – Cardinal Mooney – road win over Buchholz looks very good right now
#20 – Bolles and Creekside – throw a blanket over them
Also considered:
Saint John Paul II – marvelous effort at Benjamin Saturday
Barron Collier
Boca Raton – heck of an effort against SA versus the Belen road loss
Belen Jesuit – needs to keep winning
Buchholz – how did that Bartram Trail score occur?
Melbourne Central Catholic
American Heritage – Plantation
Winter Park
Get out to a game this week! Bring a friend!