Note:  Because of my broadcast stint I do not have full statistics and goal summaries for the game so this will be more of a review of the game as I watched it. And remember that the game is scheduled for 7:00pm tonight on the Lax Sports Network! https://www.laxsportsnetwork.com/home   Coming into the game I was looking for two major themes.  How would STA look given the top players they graduated and was last year’s LHP record a fluke.  The answers are, in short, not quite as dominant as last year but definitely a championship contender, and I’m not sure. I can’t sugarcoat this.  STA pretty much controlled all facets of the play.  Faceoffs, assists, goals, clears, etc.; physical play. At halftime it was 10-3 STA and 7 of their 10 goals were off assists while LHP was 1 for 3.  It wasn’t a big team pushing around a small team, it was a physical mature team against one not ready for it.  One takeaway in the second half is that LHP started to step up physically and they need to learn from that.  It certainly helped them split the second half 6-6, but the damage was done. STA will not replace Louie Yovino easily, it will be more of a committee.  Michael Costello was a revelation.  Kevin Crowley was steady as was Joey Guglielmo, but Jimmy Harrington was the standout last night.  It’s a rare skill down here to see great off ball movement on attack at this level.  Michael Dean at Jupiter is the only real comparable right now in this area.  Harrington gave a clinic in moving when his defender turned their head.  6 goals.  I think one was from 5 yards and the rest were from 5 feet.  It’s a lesson young attackman need to learn from.  Total time of possession for his 6 goals?  About 20 seconds . . . Don’t believe me?  Watch the game tonight. STA’s defense isn’t as deep as last year’s.  But sophomore goalie Ryan Leahy had a solid game.  Again, he’s not replacing Mikey Adler at that level.  And one big loss for STA.  Noah Cash is out for the year AGAIN.  Kid can’t catch a break. For LHP . . . there was a famous saying about Russia:  Winston Churchill defined Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma That’s how I feel right now . . . and I suspect Coach Spaulding is kind of feeling that way too. Last year LHP again advanced to the Final Four but it never felt like they were a threat to win it.  It’s still really early but I suspect we’ll know about halfway through the season if the improvement is coming.  I saw no reason last night to think a semi-final bid won’t be the end of the line again.  They were the victims of the flu going around the Ponte Vedra team and the first week showdown was postponed, robbing LHP of a big early season game to prepare from.  Their first two wins were romps over a clearly weakened Lake Brantley and a non-competitive Lake Nona and while STA traveled to a very-improved Gulf Coast and handled them easily. Lukas Kott stepped up in the second half.  Much of the offense came from juniors.  Maybe this is more of a 2018 team.  What I didn’t see enough of was the staple of LHP’s offense the last five years . . . midfield size, attacking downhill and getting off 10-yard bullets.  Kott showed some of that, but no one else.  There will need to be some stepping up from the attack this year.  And some stepping up from the leadership side.  There’s no one named Lewis or Thedford or Colling or Richbourg or Caligiuri, etc. right now. Their replacements need to come forward.  The trailblazers built a program that believed strongly in themselves and held each other up.  There’s plenty of talent, now it needs to mature.  9 losses last year, but good wins over Jupiter and Benjamin and a 1-goal loss to STA.  No MIAA on the schedule this year, but enough tests coming up to see where they really are.  Next Friday at Lake Mary will tell me a lot. A tale of two teams.  One looking to be the LHP of the past and one looking to replicate the record of LHP of the past five years.  Right now the replicator is in the lead. Still plenty of time to improve.