Gulliver Prep stayed undefeated last night with an impressive road victory over American Heritage last night with a comfortable 10-4 final score.  The story of the game was Gulliver turning up the heat offensively after a sloppy start, as well as AH/B playing a fundamentally poor game on offense.  13 first half turnovers and only hitting the cage on 7 of 15 shots in the half by Gulliver allowed AH/B to keep it close in the first half but Gulliver cleaned it up in the second half to pull away.  AH/B’s players relied too often on one hand groundball play and far too many shots failed to change plane, making Gulliver goalie Lucas Rego’s game a lot easier as he made 15 saves on 19 shots on goal, with many of them high, stick side ones.  In addition, AH/B allowed two man-down goals while on EMO.  AH/B played hard the whole game and the defense held up well and there is something to build on going forward. Gulliver now moves on to the tougher part of the schedule as their next four games are against Columbus Catholic, Stoneman Douglas, Belen Jesuit and Ransom Everglades, with Ponte Vedra and Barron Collier also looming.  Even a .500 record would be pretty good for that gauntlet.  Gulliver’s offense, when functioning well, was high octane, as the kids can certainly shoot hard and they can get off the shot very quickly, and as AH/B’s defense wore down a little later in the game the space needed to run those plays started to open up and Gulliver took advantage. AH/B opened the scoring at 9:01 as Dante Moore curled from behind the right of the net, spun through two defenders and shot into the high right corner for the 1-0 lead.  Gulliver struck back just 33 seconds later as CJ Hassan took advantage of a fast break, beating the defense up top and going low before the slide could react to tie it at one.  At 5:45 Gulliver took the lead on a man-down goal, as he broke through a double team on the right alley and found the net low with the right hand and just 42 seconds later the lead went to 3-1 as Andrew Kardonski split the defense going down the left alley and hit the low right corner.  Gulliver then pushed it to 4-1 at 3:22 as they scored another man down goal, converting a fast break, as John Walker’s top middle pass found Logan Pathman on the right wing and Pathman patiently waited for AH/B goalie Justin Lugo to make the first move before firing it in high on the short side and the quarter ended that way. AH/B cut the lead to 4-2 just 45 seconds into the second as they scored their own man-down goal as they took advantage of a busted clear by GP with Chase Skorupa taking a left crease feed from the right wing by Moore to score with a low shot.  At 7:28 GP went back up by 3 as Trevor Pelletier curled from the left side to the left crease and took advantage of open space to finish high on the short side.  AH/B got that back about a minute later as Ben Sundook scooped up a loose ball after a shot attempt and finished from the left crease to make it 5-3 at the half. Gulliver broke the game open in the third by outscoring AH/B 3-0 to make it 8-3 after three.  At 8:46 Pelletier scored unassisted on the EMO as he curled from behind the left side of the net and hit the high shot side.  At 6:28 Walker took a left behind pass from Pelletier while cutting the left alley and finished near the crease, and at 3:26 Pelletier converted on the EMO as he cut out from left GLE, taking Walker Gautier’s left wing pass before whipping in a high, right handed shot. The teams traded goals early in the fourth.  At 9:49 Pelletier stole an outlet pass on a 5 on 5 on the top right wing and found Gautier in the middle and he turned right and finished low from 5 yards out and at 9:02 Roberto Villasana stepped down on the left wing on EMO and bounced one home for 9-4.  GP completed the scoring at 5:03 as Enrique Falla took advantage of the EMO on another Pelletier (3G/3A) assist as they worked down the right wing and the game ended at 10-4. Gulliver is back in action on Friday against Columbus Catholic and American Heritage/Boca hosts Wellington on Friday too.   Team Statistics Faceoffs:  AH/B 9 – Gulliver 7 Shots:  Gulliver 33 – AH/B 32 Shots on Goal:  AH/B 19 – Gulliver 17 Turnovers:  Gulliver 24 – AH/B 16 Penalties:  Gulliver 8 – AH/B 7   Individual Statistics   Gulliver Trevor Pelletier  3G/3A CJ Hassan  2G Walker Gautier and John Walker  1G/1A each Logan Pathman and Enrique Falla  1G each   American Heritage Dante Moore  1G/1A Chase Skorupa, Ben Sundook and Roberto Villasana 1G each   Gulliver goalie Lucas Rego had 15 saves and AH/B goalie Justin Lugo made 7 saves   Thanks to Coach Goldberg and Coach Piggot for talking to me before and after the game!