Those in attendance last night in Boca, and that was many as the stands were packed and the fences lined with standing room only, witnessed a game that was almost mystical . . . as if the ghosts of Don Jones Memorial Field decided it was time to make an appearance, saving it for the last 7 minutes of the game. Or we could have just looked back to March 7th when we witnessed an eerily similar game of Jupiter not being able to hold on to two 4-goal leads in that one. There’s just something almost preternatural about these games. Hence the ghosts. I’ve written about life imitating art at times in the lacrosse world.  My favorite author growing up was Irving Wallace.  Irving could have predicted last night.  He wrote epic novels . . . and a number of them were titled to fit an epic lacrosse game.  Some of his titles included: “The Prize” – a trip to Bradenton to the victor “The Plot” – coaching strategies and adjustments on the fly “The Man” – there were certainly a number of those on both sides last night and “The Seven Minutes” – a book that was actually made into a movie in 1971. Now those who are familiar with the book and the movie (the movie does not follow the amazing ending of the book) . . . don’t take the comparison too literally, I’m not going there.  For the kids who are piqued and Google this, the plot of the book and movie will seem pretty absurd, but books are usually written to accommodate the mores of the times and it did capture that very well. The last seven minutes of the game reminded us all of the two undeniable factors of playoff sports at the high school level . . . one team wins . . . life can sometimes be pretty cruel.     Years of work goes into getting to this position of being able to play for something so meaningful.  And all those years can seem like it was wasted to the side that loses. That’s not true in any fashion outside of the actual game result.  For Jupiter’s seniors, last night must feel like another author’s work . . . Don Quixote.  That feeling dissipates over time but never quite disappears.  That’s true up and down the line . . . players, coaching staff, parents, friends of the players.  Last night you could see the community, looking like the final journey was to continue only to come to a halt.  Take the community feeling home and focus on the positive . . . the excitement of the journey and all the kids did accomplish, and when the dust clears and so many of the kids are successes in life because of the lessons learned in striving for their goal it will once again be evident that all you can control in life is the input, not the output.  The community is a class act and will be a positive force for high school lacrosse long from now. As for Jupiter’s marvelous senior class . . . when you get together in the future and are old enough to do so, make a toast to what you are, not what you aren’t.  It’s good enough for all the rest of us. For Saint Andrew’s, another in a long line of incredible performances when staring at the lacrosse version of the Abyss.  Two years ago, in the District Final against Boca Raton they faced a similar situation with even less time left and that elusive ghost showed then too.  In reality it isn’t a true ghost but the collective belief honed over many years of a belief in themselves, carefully handed down from their predecessors.  Guided by a coaching staff that has given them that added edge to make last year seem like a bad dream that the program has finally woken up from to re-assume their mantle, and the road from here is seen as the opportunity to make a statement as much as win a championship. Just like their Jupiter friends, and their are plenty of those relationships, the SA community is also full of class, not least which is the kids who pulled this off.  And so once again we move on to the Final Four of this great sport with so much to watch for and so many more thrills to come.     The game itself was statistically unusual.  Coming into the game, Wells and I thought that faceoffs were going to be key and if Jupiter could slow down Alex Newhouse it could make the difference.  And in the first three quarters Jupiter’s Jake Lolmaugh actually won the battle but Newhouse ended up winning the fourth quarter.  What we didn’t foresee was SA head coach Tony Seaman deciding to go with the man-to-man defense pretty much the whole game when their zone had given so many previous opponents fits.  It led to Jupiter having 22 turnovers and that offset a possession advantage early.  Another facet of the man-to-man was that it kept Jupiter’s shooting percentage low, as they only put 12 shots on goal the entire game according to my stats.  9 of those 12 eventually found the net.  On the other side, SA continued their late season shooting arsenal but Jupiter goalie Viper Scheele made 10 first half saves and it looked like Jupiter would take a comfortable lead to halftime . . . but that didn’t come to pass.  Advantage SA for being able to make their first comeback. And that pattern repeated in the second half.  Twice. At 9:48 of the fourth quarter Michael Dean scored an EMO goal as he cut off ball to the left alley, taking Jesse Foertmeyer’s feed in stride and hitting the bottom right corner of the cage for about the 50th time over the past two seasons of Jupiter running that pattern and when Scheele made another of his 16 saves a minute later and Jupiter took possession in the SA half it looked like they had seized control of the game with a 9-6 lead. And as the clock wound down towards the final 7 minutes . . .     The two teams came out kind of tight and it took over 7 minutes (That’s just a coincidence. I think.) for SA to open the scoring as long pole Oliver Alpert, on a shorthanded rush, took advantage of space in front of him and cut in from the left wing after taking Brandt Guldin’s right wing feed and went low with the shot to make it 1-0 at 4:30 but just 7 seconds later it was tied as Lolmaugh popped the faceoff forward and Zach Crotty found Dean all alone at the right crease and Dean easily beat Harris Feldman for the tying goal to make it 1-1 after the first.  The first period was summarized quite simply . . . 6 Scheele saves versus 8 Jupiter turnovers. The second quarter started the same way, with 7 minutes gone (coincidences are mounting up) until Foetmeyer turned on the turbocharger, scoring a natural hat trick in less than 3 minutes.  At 4:46 he curled from behind the left side and faded up the alley, placing the shot low to the far corner.  Then at 3:43 he curled the left side, splitting two defenders before finishing with a cheeky underhand shot to the low left corner for 3-1 and at 2:08 he started on the left wing, went across the middle and then down the right alley before hitting the low left corner for 4-1.  But then SA responded with 3 of their own in 70 seconds to tie the game at 4 going to halftime.  Alpert grabbed the halftime scoring lead for the Scots at 1:36 as he went down the middle on the fast break and his bounce shot kicked up high to the left corner for 4-2.  Brian Fox followed 23 seconds later as he dodged in from the left wing to the middle and hit the low left corner and with 27 seconds left Davis Diamond took advantage of a Scheele clearing mistake as he found himself all alone in the front of the cage to pop in the stolen pass and finished easily for the tie. No surprise we had a tie at halftime . . . a big surprise on how we got there.  2 goals in 19:14, then 6 in 4:46. Jupiter struck back with three straight in the third quarter.  At 7:30 (yeesh) Peter Cox took Crotty’s up top feed on the left crease and hit the low right corner for 5-4.  Then at 4:53 Foertmeyer scored his fourth as he scooped up a loose ball near the left crease and placed it low for 6-4 and 45 seconds later Crotty and Foertmeyer took advantage of a 4-3 fast break, with Crotty firing home the top side pass on the left wing and just like that it was a 3-goal lead again.  But at 2:32 Peter Dykas found Mark heatzig alne up top from behind the net and Heatzig’s step down shot beat Scheele low for 7-5 and at 1:21 Nick Iznaga entered the fray with a left wing dodge to the middle and his low right corner shot sent us to the fourth with Jupiter up 7-6.     Just 26 seconds in Cox put the lead back to 2 on EMO (carryover call from the end of the third) as he faked a pass from up top and when the defense peeled off he overpowered Feldman, who got a piece but could not stop the shot.  Then at 9:48 Dean and Foertmeyer teamed up as noted above and the stage was set for the amazing run. With 7:06 remaining Keith Mahler grabbed momentum back for SA with a determined rush down the right alley, edging ahead of his defender and finishing on the crease with a low to high shot while falling down.  38 seconds later Mahler found Iznaga on the left wing from right GLE and his right hand shot found the top left corner for 9-8 and less than a minute later, at 5:32 we were tied again as Dykas found a loose ball near the left crease and he finished low. Unreal. And at the same time, about 20 miles south, Barron Collier had tied St. Thomas 9-9 with about 8 minutes to go. The lacrosse Gods were out in force, even if the ghosts weren’t. With 3:00 to go Iznaga worked one-on-one with Cox and was able to get off a left-hand shot after a lengthy scrum, hitting the low left corner, giving SA their first lead since 1-0.  Jupiter struggled to get off a good look and after a change of possession SA took advantage of a fast break and Diamond found Mahler all alone on the right crease and Mahler went low for 11-9.  After the next possession SA took control deep in Jupiter territory and after a failed double team attempt Diamond found Heatzig all alone in front and the die was cast. Further south St. Thomas pulled out the game over BC 12-10, setting up the first matchup between SA and STA in three years . . . showing that it took the lacrosse Gods to do the work that the AD’s wouldn’t . . . The teams met for the customary handshakes and after that we had one more example of life imitating art.  Jupiter exited the field off the back end, and from the vantage point of the stands it was so reminiscent of the movie Field of Dreams, as the team faded into the darkness for the short, but painful journey back home.  It was a stunning visual to me, although no more stunning than the remarkable seven minutes we witnessed.  But these weren’t fictional characters acting as their own ghosts, they are kids with full lives ahead.  Thanks for the memories you provided to us all.     And now we are on to Bradenton. Four Teams Two who know their way around One who is returning One who is brand new At least four more stories to write . . .   Team Statistics   Faceoffs:  SA 13-11 Shots:  SA 41 – Jupiter 27 Shots on Goal:  SA 28 – Jupiter 12 Turnovers:  Jupiter 22 – SA 15 Penalties:  SA 5 – Jupiter 1   Individual Statistics   SA Nick Iznaga  3G Keith Mahler  2G/1A Davis Diamond  1G/2A Oliver Alpert and Mark Heatzig  2G each Peter Dykas  1G/1A Brian Fox  1G Brandt Guldin  1A   Jupiter Jesse Foertmeyer  4G/2A Zach Crotty  1G/2A Peter Cox and Michael Dean  2G each   Viper Scheele made 16 saves for Jupiter and Harris Feldman made 3 saves for SA   Thanks to Coach Seaman and Coach Loftus for speaking to me before and after the game