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Pine Crest Breezes Past Miami Palmetto 14-5

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
Pine Crest was never threatened Saturday as they cruised to a 14-5 win at home.  After running out to a 4-0 lead early in the second period Palmetto responded by outscoring PC 3-2 to send the game to halftime down 6-3.  But that was basically it for MP as PC came out strong in the third and put the game away by scoring four times in the first six minutes, stretching the lead to 10-3, on way to the 14-5 final. Pine Crest scored first on Michael Diener’s EMO bounce shot at the 6:03 mark on an assist from Zack Smith.  25 seconds later David Tescher scored on a fast break off a crease feed from Cody Shamon.  Two minutes later Shamon scored unassisted on the EMO off a shot from the right wing.  PC shot the ball an incredible 20 times in the quarter and put 15 on net.  Palmetto goalie Cameron Brooks stood on his head on the way to 17 saves on the game. Diener added his second from Smith at 9:07 of the second on a middle cut.  Palmetto finally got on the board on Ivan Rivas’ spin dodge off a fast break at 7:04 to cut the lead to 4-1.  Smith scored his first from Tescher to put the lead back to 4 at 5:52 and Daniel Courtney narrowed the gap back to 3 only 33 seconds later with an assist from Jared Cohen.  Face-off specialist Sam Talkow (side note – Sam was a teammate of my son Alex as kids in the Roller Hockey league at Sugar Sand Park – sorry for that personal digression!) scored the first of his three with 2:08 left in the half on a left alley dodge and MP’s #32 (sorry, didn’t get the name) scored on a right alley dodge with 45 seconds left to send the teams to the locker room with PC holding the 6-3 lead. Talkow pretty much dominated the faceoff battle and it got worse as the game went on.  As mentioned above PC started the third quarter on a mission.  Smith opened the third unassisted by dodging to the middle at 9:38, followed a minute later by Alex Caldwell off another Tescher feed and Tescher adding his own goal 17 seconds later.  The teams then traded goals between Smith and Palmetto’s Dylan Silverman, who impressed me quite a bit.  Good things happened pretty much every time he touched the ball and Palmetto needs to get the ball into his stick far more than it did Saturday. In the fourth PC put away any doubts by scoring four times in the first 3 minutes, all unassisted as Palmetto’s defense finally ran out of gas.  Marc Woolf, Smith and Talkow twice, which was followed by another Sylverman score to put the final at 14-5. Pine Crest has been one of the top schools in this area over the years and a team like Miami Palmetto is mostly an afterthought on the radar of most lacrosse observers down here.  That doesn’t mean that there isn’t talent there; just that in many parts of Miami the sport of lacrosse has yet to catch on as much as in other parts of southeastern Florida.  Rivas, Cohen and Sylverman can pretty much play with everyone but the depth is just not there for Coach Lazo.  As for Coach Shanahan he looks forward to making a playoff run possibly without star attackman Harris Stolzenberg, who has been out with an injury for most of the year.  PC’s depth is a little down this year and the road will be difficult to get through.  Good luck to both coaches the rest of the year. I’d like to give a shout out to Mikey Stolzenberg for giving me some spotting help while broadcasting the game.  I will be working up a story on Mikey and his upcoming charity event and will talk a little bit more about my first encounter with him and his family (turns out that his mom and I grew up in the same town and went to the same high school – sorry for personal digression #2!) and I promise it won’t be my last. Stats were overwhelmingly in favor of Pine Crest: Face-offs:  18-4 Shots:  60-25 SOGs:  31 – 14 Turnovers were pretty even with PC at 20 and MP at 22 Each team took 4 penalties. Brooks ended with 17 saves and Patrick Haley saved 10 shots before yielding to Spey Quin for the fourth. Zach Smith led PC with 4G/2A, followed by Talkow’s 3G, Tescher 2G/2A, and Shamon, Caldwell and Woolf with a goal each.  Silverman led MP with 2G, Rivas, Courtney and #32 with one each, and Jared Cohen with his assist. PC travels to Boca Raton High on Wednesday before hosting St. Andrew’s and Vero Beach on Friday and Saturday to finish out the regular season.  Miami Palmetto ends the regular season by hosting Immaculata LaSalle on Tuesday and going to Miami Country Day on Friday.

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