Before the game, as I was talking to the head coaches, Pine Crest Coach George Harris joshed that he was tempted to tell me the game started at 7:00 instead of 5:00 because every time I showed up in Ft. Lauderdale his team lost the game.  Well, George improved to 1-3 last night so I can put that curse to bed. I choose the game for a couple of reasons.  First, I needed to see if the traditional PC second-half improvement cycle was alive and well and second because in the 4 years of writing I hadn’t covered a Ransom Everglades game, and since Ransom coach Roy Kelly is one of the really good guys I wanted to make sure to see his team play. The improvements to the Pine Crest field make it one of the best places to watch a game in the area.  Intimate, right on the field, a new press box constructed that makes covering the game really easy. And with the 5:00pm start there was no freight train coming through until after the end of the game. Coach Kelly talked about how inconsistent the team has been this year and when you look at his 5-4 record coming in it was easy to see what he was referring to.  The 5 wins were all pretty much lopsided while the four losses were mostly not close either.  Part of that is the schedule and part of that was just the on-field consistency.  And unfortunately the game played out to Coach Kelly’s words. High school sports are pretty much like Forrest Gump talking about chocolates . . . you never really know what you are going to get until you bite into it.  There’s very little spin I can put on this one.  Every kid who plays a team sport goes through one like this.  It hurts.  The first half was a nightmare . . . nothing that could go wrong failed to happen to Ransom. What was encouraging was how the team responded in the second half.  Not that they outscored Pine Crest 6-2 in the second half.  More than that, they kept their composure and focused on playing the game.  In the second quarter, as the game got way out of hand, some chippy play crept in and the hitting started to get close to the line.  I’ve seen too many times where someone will use the excuse of a big lead to take a cheap shot and hurt someone.  Last night the Ransom kids got control of themselves in the second half and kept from crossing the line. That’s credit to them and credit to Coach Kelly and his staff who also saw it and put the brakes on right away. The lesson learned last night by the Ransom kids was a good one.  Class wins out over the long run.  Good for them. Pine Crest played pretty much the perfect first half . . . 20 for 27 shots in the first half hit the net.  3 for 6 on EMO.  Low turnovers, etc.  ‘Held’ Ransom to 2 shots in the first half.  Used quotes on that because Ransom played their part. I guess George will invite me back again. Coach Harris went deep into his bench in the second half and a few of his top players did not play the second half.  David Tescher went 3G/3A, Jeremy Oletsky went 4G/1A and Chris Dunne chipped in 3G/2A with only one of those points coming in the second half.  Jordan Eskenanzi and Noah Dearman chipped in 2G each.  Yani Fabre showed he could produce on the field like he did in the broadcast booth two Saturdays ago.  Five players chipped in goals for Ransom with Chris Kucera potting two.  Andrew Swerdlow made some great saves, including some crease side one-on-ones.  He didn’t hit the scorebook but O’Jhonte Armstrong had a nice game, competing on faceoffs with PC’s top faceoff specialist Quin Spey and showing a nose for groundballs.  Reece Ritzenthaler showed a lot of promise when he focused on the task at hand.  Eli Ramos took one of the nastiest ‘blocked shots’ I’ve seen and hopefully is okay. Ransom is clinched into a matchup with Columbus Catholic in the first round of District 30 and that game is pretty much the key upcoming game for them.  They have two out of conference games with visiting north squads Bartram Trail and Berkeley Prep as preparation for the District tourney.  Pine Crest has a compelling matchup on Tuesday with American Heritage-Plantation and also hosts surging Jensen Beach, a winner over Top 10 Vero earlier this week.   The first half ended with Pine Crest leading 14-0.  Seven goals each in the first two periods.   1st 9:21 – Eskenanzi unassisted on a left wing dodge to the middle 9:17 – Eskenanzi from Oletsky on EMO on a left wing pass 8:01 – Dearman split two defenders up top and down the middle 6:07 – Fabre on the right wing dodging to the middle 3:36 – Tescher from Matt Becker all alone on the left crease 2:46 – Oletsky from Dunne on the left crease 0:09 – Tescher curling from behind left to the front   2nd 10:00 – Oletsky unassisted on a left wing face dodge 7:59 – Oletsky from Dunne on a cross-field pass to the left crease 7:38 – Tescher with a left wing step down 6:24 – Tescher finding Dearman in front from behind 1:56 – Dunne on EMO coming out from behind as the defense didn’t slide 0:47 – Dunne from Tescher on the left crease from up top on EMO 0:04 – Dunne from Tescher on the right crease   In the 3rd quarter Ransom scored both goals.  At 11:40 Alex Fuster took Chris Kucera’s left GLE pass and stepped out to the front before going short side and with 1 second left in the period Alex Kucera took Max Fuster feed on the low right wing and his shot went low short side for 14-2. Ransom scored three early goals in the fourth.  At 11:26 Declan Cummiskey hit the top of the net from the Owen Ziegelboim feed.  At 10:07 Ritzenthaler finished a fast break down the right side and the long pole fired home from 15 yards out and at 9:33 the Kuceras teamed up with Chris finishing all alone on the left crease for 14-5. Oletsky and Dearman added goals and the Kuceras finished the game off with 2 seconds left on EMO with the feed in front, as Chris Kucera scored to make the final 16-6. Usually, when a game like this plays out the after-game talk between the coaches doesn’t reflect on the score as much as talking about players that impressed each other and that was true in this instance . . . a nice way to end the night.  It also game me some extended time to talk with both together, which is pretty rare as I tend to debrief each individually afterwards. And there will be another game coming up to change the spirits . . . although for Ransom that won’t be for 12 days; plenty of time to get back to work and understand that it’s always better to look forward than back.   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  PC  21-11 Shots:  PC  31-13 Shots on Goal:  25-8 Turnovers:  PC 23-22 Penalties:  RE 9-2   Individual Statistics   PC David Tescher  3G/3A Jeremy Oletsky  4G/1A Chris Dunne  3G/2A Jordan Eskenanzi and Noah Dearman  2G each Yani Fabre and Bailey Finkelberg  1G each Matt Becker  1A Ryan Fielder and Christian Gavin split the goalie duties and made 2 saves   RE Chris Kucera  2G/1A Alex Kucera  1G/2A Alex Fuster, Declan Cummiskey and Reece Ritzenthaler  1G each Max Fuster and Owen Zighelboim  1A each   Thanks to Coach Harris and Coach Kelly for talking to me before and after the game.