Lovett started fast with the first goal coming just :30 into the game with a Hughes Moffett shot from Justin Garr.  Crosby Matthews won the next face off and got the ball to Will Russ who made it 2-0  only :17 later.  It wasn’t long before Bailey Taylor made it 3-0 as the first three shots from Lovett found the back of the net.

We aren’t sure what was going on at the face off X, but the third procedure call on the four face offs gave the ball to Lake Brantley.  This time the speedy Austin Gurrina would score for Lake Brantley and we had four goals on the first four shots of the game.  The shooters were certainly on target. The scoring slowed for just a few moments as both teams traded some transition play, but Lovett appeared to be the stronger team in the open field and eventually Justin Garr was able to take a feed from Murphy Lee on the doorstep to make it 4-1.   That was followed up with a Matthews win at the Face Off X and Moffett scored again to give Lovett the 5-1 lead. Bailey Taylor hit Jeremy Garr with a nice pass across the crease to make it 6-1.

With just four minutes left in the quarter Lake Brantley got their second offensive opportunity. Lovett brought some man to man pressure and Brantley worked the ball to Bernhardt who matched up on a short stick D-middie.  He was able to win his dodge against dumped the ball to Guriina who faked one more and then stepped up and shots to the high left corner for LB’s second goal.  It appeared the the Lake Brantley offense was working, they just could not get the possessions they needed. Lovett the got the ball and set up an open offense and moved the ball around.  Lake Brantley set up to slide adjacent but just didn’t bring any pressure to the ball and Moffett just shots and scored. On the next Lovett possession  the Patriots set up in a zone.  It did slow down the Lovett offense but Bayley Taylor saw a crease as the middle of the Brantley zone was a little too high.  He made a  simple inside roll nobody was there to seal it off and he tip toed up the GLE right next to the crease and finished on the doorstep to  give the Lions an 8-2 lead.

Lovett had the ball once again but an errant pass gave it back to LB and Bernhardt quickly went to work from X.  He made a tremendous move as he worked off a pick, threw a fake pass, and shot while the Lovett team was looking for the ball.  He can really make it look easy sometimes and closed it to 8-3. LB won the next face off and moved the ball around well until the ball hit the ground on an inside dodge. But Bernhardt was right there and he picked it up for LB and scored on a scoop and shoot to make it 8-4 at the end of the first quarter. Lake Brantley had moved LSM Cade Lennon to the X to work against Crosby Matthews.  He was effective with the long pole and the Lake Brantley offense was showing promise when the had the ball.  But they damage had been done and the Lovett offense was also very effective and they had the lead.

The Patriots won the 2nd quarter face off and less than a minute later they drew a flag. Bernhardt was able to convert to get the Hat Trick and make it 8-5.  The Lake Brantley zone was beginning to work and Lovett was unable to get the ball inside.  Justin Garr settled for the outside shot and let a high ripped an 18 yard high to high shot that found the net for Lovett’s ninth goal. Lake Brantley was riding hard and trying to get back in the game when Tim Marinan picked up a hard fought BG on the ride. He got the ball back to his offense and a hard shot off the cross bar bounced in favor of Lovett as they picked it up near the mid field line.  They ran some unsettled transition while the Brantley middies were trying to get back into position but Hughes Moffett hits the five hole from a yard out to convert the unfortunate bounce for Brantley into a 10-5 lead for Lovett. AJ Monte was able to find Alex Preddy for a goal on the next LB possession to make it  10-6.  Lake Brantley played some tougher defense for the remainder of the half and continued to improve on the ride and their play between the boxes.  They had some opportunities as the half wound down.  While they were unable to convert, they did finish the half strong and stop the bleeding from the first quarter. Lake Brantley benefited early in the second half on a horrible push with possession call when the ball was clearly loose gave an EMO to Brantley.  The Patriots made the most of it and immediately got a big shot from Guerrina from a pass by Bernhardt to get the game to within 3.

Lovett came right back, however,  with an unassisted goal by Hughes Moffett. While the Lake Brantley zone had slowed down Moffett he was still able to get some work done in unsettled situations. PJ Johnson found a seam, cutting through the zone and Bailey Taylor found him for the 12-7 goal from Lovett.  Murphy Lee scored on a nice shot from the island and Will Russ just stepped down from the top and fired one to make it 14-7 Lovett. With the third quarter winding down Jared Bernhardt made a nice effort from X with a dodge and re-dodge to score his fourth and make it 14-8. Lake Brantley was unable to close the gap in the fourth as Moffett, Garr, and Russ would combine to make it 18 for Lovett and Monte would add one more for Lake Brantley bring it to an 18-9 final score. Jake Mankiewicz ended the day with 9 saves and Richardson finished with 11 for Lovett.

Coach Jake Bernhardt felt his team took too long to get going. “We’ve got to come out and play hard right away. If you play like that against a team like Lovett they are going to capitalize on that. We’ve got to get some more ground balls to give our offense more opportunities.  They have a good face off guy, give credit where credit is due, but we just played too much defense.” Finishing the Central Florida stand with a 1-1 record Coach Buczek was happy with what he saw and ready for some work before they face Boys Latin.  “We like coming down here.  Lake Highland does a great job hosting.  I learned we have a lot of work to do on defense.”  As for the constantly improving Crosby Matthews he said, “I think another year older he is a little bit more mature now.   He is seeing everything but the kitchen sink thrown at him but now he can handle it a lot better than last year when he was just a sophomore.” Lake Highland travels to Hagerty tonight to face the 4-4 Huskies.  Lovett gets a couple of days off for spring break and then begins to prepare for Boys Latin on the 17th.