St. Andrew’s treated Pope John Paul II like a little brother that is growing up but not yet ready to stand up to his older sibling.  PJP came into the game with a lot of momentum, having won 8 of their last nine and playing their best lacrosse of the year.  But that late season spark was missing and it turned into a long night for them.  Connor Whipple, Andy Wheeler and Jake Levine combined for 12 goals and Stephen Reall chipped in 2G/3A to lead the Scots to a comfortable 19-6 result. One bright spot for PJP was the play of sophomore middie Troy Fischer who won the faceoff battle for the Eagles.  But after tying the game midway through the first on Mikey Urso’s goal PJP was outscored 10-2 the rest of the first half, and trailed 11-3 at the break.  SA got off 30 shots in the half, placing 21 on goal.  If not for Pope goalie’s Niko Morfogen’s 10 first-half saves the score would have been worse.  PJP got off 16 shots but only hit the net on 6 of them with many being questionable attempts. SA completed the rout with an 8-3 second half performance that allowed the coaching staff to go deep into the bench and reserve their players for Thursday’s District final against Boca.  One surprise was that Conor Poetzinger played the whole game for SA instead of Corey Etcheverry.  SA’s offense looked much crisper than in many other games this year but they were aided by a porous midfield defense for PJP that allowed too many clean looks off dodges. PJP was led by Urso’s hat trick and Jake Boyer, Connor Thornton and John McTurk added goals while Thornton tallied PJP’s lone assist.  PJP was a young team this year (one graduating senior) and next year will be the year they should expect to step up; Coach Bulger certainly believes in them.  Now they need to believe in themselves; sometimes the hardest thing to do in life is stand up to your older brother. SA goes on from here in their quest to repeat their state championship.  They are on the other side of the coin, a senior-oriented team that is going through their last go-round together.  This is a very talented group that basically grew up together in the SA program and they face a rough road forward.  Boca is no slouch and is looking to make their mark.  In the nightcap Boca pulled away from Spanish River in the second half to win 11-6.  SR opened the scoring on an Adrian Franzone goal, assisted by Turner Walker.  Boca responded with 4 straight within 4 minutes to lead 4-1.  SR scored four of the next six goals to make it 6-5 at halftime.  Boca’s early season bugaboo, shooting percentage, reared itself in the first half as they hit the net with only 12 of their first 21 shots, allowing SR to hang around.  Both goalies were on top of their game and the halftime score led one to believe it was truly wither team’s game to win.  Unfortunately for SR that was as close as they were to get.  Boca scored the only three goals of the third period to stretch the lead to four at 9-5.  SR was only able to control 1 second half faceoff and combined with 6 turnovers and 2 penalties in the third, along with only getting off 5 shots, they were slowly taken out of the game. Boca finished off the game with a 2-1 fourth quarter to make the final 11-6.  SR is also a young team this year and they certainly progressed over the second half of the season.  They played a tough schedule this year and like Pope look to step up next season and narrow the gap further with the established programs in the area.  After the game Coach Brian Johnson indicated to me that they need to set their goals higher next year; not just competing with the top programs but beating them as well. Boca was led by Nick Shultz’ 4 goals, Nick McCabe and Ryan Clinton with 2G/2A each and Brad Singer and Ryan Lorenzo scoring 1G/1A each.  SR was led by Franzone and David Diamond with 2G each, Colton Stanger with a goal and Walker adding his assist.  Jake Diamond finished with 10 saves and Nick Martin finished with 11.  Both goalies also excelled with their outlet passes. SA hosts the district final Thursday.