Above – Lake Highland was strong at the Face Off X most of the night – photo courtesy of Enstone Images There was a great atmosphere at the Lake Mary versus Lake Highland Prep game.  I had not gone more than a few feet inside the gate when I saw friends from several different teams and organizations.  It was clearly a big event for Central Florida lacrosse.

We weren’t treated to quite the dogfight we all had been hoping for.  LHP won the opening face off, took the ball deep into their own end was able to clear the ball.  It was only a few seconds of offensive possession when Christian Cisneros scored and made it look pretty easy.   Although Lake Mary would show glimpses of the team they have been all season and we were treated to some fantastic action at times, one never got the feeling that the end was in any doubt. Lake Mary didn’t make it easy all night, however.   After Lake Highland won the ensuing face off Chandler Harrison made a nice save and kick started the Lake Mary offense with a nice clearing pass.  The Rams were patient on offense but the Lake Highland defense showed they were not afraid to spread out and apply some pressure.  The Lake Mary dodgers were just unable to take advantage and eventually turned it over.

Lake Highland got the ball back down the field and Chandler made another excellent save.  The Rams hustled after the deflected shot and were awarded the ball. As Lake Mary cleared the Highlanders were flagged for offsides and it was Austin Farewell’s turn to come up with a save as the Rams got what would be one of their few shots of the first quarter. The Rams EMO didn’t turn out like they anticipated as Griff Caligiuri created a turnover and ended up scoring short handed for Lake Highland to make it 2-0.

It was just that kind of night for Lake Mary.  They would put together a good possession but were just unable to penetrate against the LHP defense until they made a small mistake.  Then Lake Highland would pounce.  Lake Mary was whistled for a violation, it wasn’t clear but possibly a substitution infraction, and the Highlanders just jumped all over them and caught the Ram defense flat footed on the dangerous restart at midfield.  Cisneros finished to make it 3-0.  Then with four seconds left on the clock an errant Lake Mary pass went out of bounds in their defensive end.  Reid Thedford got a jump on the restart and hit Tiger Graham on the crease who finished as time expired in the first quarter to make it 4-0.

Finally with 1:40 gone in the second quarter Charlie Ragault was able to get a step on his defender and got top side to score and get the Rams on the board. It was the simple, strong move that you usually see from Lake Mary against a high pressure defense.  He made one quick move and then went top side.  When no slide came he stepped in an finished. Lake Mary faced high pressure from the LHP defense as soon as the ball crossed the midfield line.  They did a great job of keeping Lake Mary on the perimeter but the Rams got the ball up to Alex Forehand who was way up at the top near the midfield line. He drove down the alley and scored to put Lake Mary right back in the game at 4-2. A call on Lake Mary gave the Highlanders and EMO opportunity.  The dangerous man up unit used excellent ball movement as Jake Zerivitz found Tiger Graham to make it 5-2. With 3:39 left in the half Lake Mary got an opportunity as Lake Highland was flagged for a cross check.  But once again, Griff Caligiuri forced a turnover and cleared the ball.  Before he could shoot this time he drew a tripping penalty to negate Lake Mary’s EMO attempt and created another EMO for the Highlanders.  They converted this one as well when Jackson Colling hit Jake Zerivitz to make it 6-2 with 2:27  left in the half. Lake Highland won the face off again and Don Eidson dodged and scored unassisted to make it 7-2 with 2:03 left in the half and that’s how the first half would end. As the third quarter began Lake Mary made a couple of solid defensive stands and even got a shot from Ben Carbone but an unfortuanate bounce off the goal post when directly to Lake Highland.  The Rams were right back on defense and they were able to score to make it 8-2 with 8:27 left in the third quarter. Whether it was just not Lake Mary’s night or due to to Lake Highland’s defense the Rams just could not get much going until over halfway through the third quarter.  But as they started to come alive so did Austin Farwell who made some key saves down the stretch in the the third.  Then small mistakes came back to bite Lake Mary once again.  After a couple  minutes of playing defense the Highlanders got the ball back on an errant pass and Kyle Richbourg struck quickly getting topside on a move from X to make it 9-2. Alex Forehand and Zach Gussman teamed up on a play for Lake Mary that was just sheer determination.  They each dodged, dumped to the other who would dodge and re-dodge before dishing it back.  Finally, after splitting a pair of defenders Gussman made the finish to get the game to 9-3. The first minute of the fourth saw both teams score.  Tiger Graham picked up a rebound after a Harrison Chandler same and made the put back to make it 10-3, then Charlie Ragault came back for Lake Mary as he cut through the middle and made a nice shot for 0-4. Conner Aniello scored on an assist by Richbourg to make it 11-4 with 9:21 left in the game. Charlie Ragault scored on an assist by Daniel Dreifus after LHP failed to advance the ball and Lake Mary got aggressive on the restart. Lake Mary’s LSM, Ben Carbone, flashed some offensive skills he took a pass and made a perfect bounce shot to the far post to make it 11-6 with 6:41 left in the game. Charlie Regault scored his fourth of the game after a Lake Mary defense forced a turnover.  The Rams offense worked the ball around until he tip toed just off the crease to make it 11-7.  It looked like the Rams might make a run as  Connor Carbone came  through with a very timely face off win and Lake Mary’s Alex Forehand scored on a rebound but it was called back for interference.  Lake Highland almost turned it over as he was swarmed near the midfield line on the ensuing clear but Chris Spaulding called a time out just in time. Lake Highland was making a very deliberate possession when Lake Mary was flagged for holding and Lake Highland’s Jake Zerivitz scored on an assist from Reid Thedford to take the wind out of the comeback sails of Lake Mary making it 12-7. Kyle Richbourg scored on another put back with 2:17 left in the game.  Lake Highland just moved the ball until a Lake Mary defender over played the ball and… boom, two passes later they scored. Connor Aniello intercepted a clearing pass he hit Cisneros who found Richbourg to make it 14-7 with  1:13 left in the game.  With the seconds ticking away Reid Thedford scored one more as Chandler Harrison, who finished with 19 saves, was out of net double teaming the ball.