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Highlanders Upend Winter Park

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
(Apr. 1) – In the nightcap of the opening day of the O’Town Showdown, host Lake Highland defeated the Winter Park Wildcats 11-9 in front of a large, vocal crowd. This edition of the rivalry did not disappoint as both teams fought hard for 48 minutes. LHP jumped out early on a goal by Sophomore Clay Phillips off a feed from Senior Nick St. Laurent in the first minute of the game. On the offensive end, the Wildcats used effective interior passing to take their only lead of the game at 2-1 with 2:58 left in the opening quarter. The Highlanders answered with two goals including the first of four by game high scorer Sophomore Devon Lewis who had the game of his young career. Defensively, Winter Park opened with an aggressive man to man marking of Lake Highland all-American Will Rotatori that held the senior attackman in check for most of the first half. That strategy was abandoned as the evening wore on as eight different Highlanders tallied goals including 6 by the Super Sophomores, the last of which by attackman Billy Roll at the 4:58 mark of the second period on a play where he was knocked to the ground, maintained possession and got up to beat the Winter Park goalie high to his off hand. The score at halftime was 6-3 in favor of LHP. The teams traded goals throughout a tightly contested 3rd period. Ahead by only 2 goals to start the final period, an illegal stick penalty was assessed to Lake Highland. The Highlander defense rose to the occasion and killed the man down situation including two saves by senior goalie Warren Berenis on point blank shots. After Winter Park scored with 2:46 remaining to cut the margin to 11-9, the Highlanders dominated possession the rest of the way and held on for the win.

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