The trip to Newsome High School was an eye opening, enjoyable experience.  Lithia, FL is a true small southern town.   Traveling into Lithia is like traveling into many small Florida towns .  It feels like football country.  It is football country.  Newsome High School Football Alumni either play or have played for teams like Florida, Florida State, Navy, Auburn, and many other D1 programs.  And now it’s home to an Elite 8 lacrosse program in addition to a soon-to-be alumni playing lacrosse at the next level.  Senior goalie Colby Blackburn is headed to Seaton Hill in the fall. Way back in 2010 we began this website to close the circle a little bit and make the Florida lacrosse scene a little more inclusive of programs like Newsome and it paid off for me to meet folks like Michelle Greene who said, “Hey, I read your site all the time!”  That was great. It was also fun to see a small town that is way south of I-4 and way west of I-75 in the middle of agriculture and football country embrace this sport.  The fans were out in full force, they were knowledgable of the sport, loud, and fun.  They cheered for their players all the way to the final horn even after it was clear that this was the end of the 17 game winning streak and the season.  They cheered loudly after the final horn when the names of the seniors who just finished their final game were read over the PA system. Newsome looked like a team that was ready to get it done when they jumped out early with a goal by Ian Lukas who finished on a feed from Bryce Liekefet with just under two minutes gone in the game.  It was clear that neither team was familiar with the other as both offenses looked a little pensive and the defenses weren’t really pressuring too much.  Nobody was too sure who the dangerous guys were on the other side. Newsome found out soon enough as Don Eidson made a little stutter step and moved down into the alley where he let a shot go and found the net to tie it up and start a four goal run by LHP.  Connor Aniello scored twice on the run and assisted Tiger Grahm on another.  By the time Newsome caught a break and drew a flag with 8:40 left in the second quarter the score was 4-1 LHP. Matt Amoroso, who would emerge as the player of the game for Newsome, made the most of the EMO when he took a feed from Liekefet who recorded his second assist on the first two Newsome goals. Amoroso won 7 of 10 second quarter face-offs but it wasn’t enough to stop the Highlanders who went on a five goal run over the next 5:30 with two more goals from Aniello, and one each from Jackson Colling, Reid Thedford, and Tiger Grahm. Amoroso again stopped the bleeding for Newsome after he won a face off and just refused to quit, powering his way to the goal to make it 8-3 with 2:27 left in the half. Unfortunatley for the Wolves, the great effort by Amoroso appeared to really kick the LHP offense into gear and they had their best possession of the game and with 1:33 left in the half Reid Thedford finished it off when he took a pass from Will Walker and found the back of the net. Kyle Richbourg added one more before the end of the half and Lake Highland took an 11-3 lead into the half time break.  Despite some great play in the goal by Colby Blackburn the relentless pressure took it’s toll and with just a few seconds left in the half had to leave the game with an injury.  He would return in the fourth quarter. Newsome had  a small chance to get something going when LHP was flagged early in the 3rd quarter.  But the LHP man-down unit forced a turnover and killed the penalty.  It was all LHP the rest of the way.  They would add 8 more goals while holding Newsome to four. At the end of the game Matt Amoroso was 14 and 11 at the F/O X and scored a hat trick for Newsome.  Kyle Rintoul scored twice and Ian Lukas added two of his own. Lake Highland scoring was done by Connor Aniello with six goals, Tiger Graham and Reid Thedford with three each, Don Eidson, Jackson Colling, and Kyle Richboug wit two apiece and Jake Zerivitz added another. After the game we spoke to LHP Head Coach Chris Spaulding.  He said he feels his guys are playing well right now.  “We’re playing fast and our approach was let’s get it in and go early offense, just like a scramble.  Find the match ups and force the early slide when they’re not comfortable.”  I asked coach if we’ve seen the best of Lake Highland yet.  “I don’t think so.  I think we’ve seen glimpses of it.  I can say I haven’t seen four quarters of what we are capable of and I’m kind of excited to see it.  So maybe we’re saving the best for last and obviously we’re going to need it.” Coach Eric Blackburn of Newsome has no regrets.  “Phenomenal season.  Who would have thought this little Newsome team would have made it this far?  These kids work so hard every day, they play so good together and they really love each other.”  “What a great season, we were 17-0, came down to the wire with Plant, Steinbrenner, and Jesuit.  It was a tough 17-0 but it showed the character of this team.” As for carrying the banner for Tampa area lacrosse he said, “I think it shows that Plant, Steinbrenner, Jesuit, Wharton, there is really good lacrosse here in Tampa.  I think we went to Dr. Phillips the other night and and played great and showed this little Newsome team is for real.  We came out here tonight and jumped out to a 1-0 lead…and then ran into a really good squad, they are defending state champions and I think they have a really good chance of winning it again this year.” It was all smiles on both sides as players, parents, and coaches were leaving the stadium.  Everybody knew that they had just seen a bunch of players from both teams leave it all out there and it was an entertaining evening.