St. Andrew’s shook off their recent offensive slump with a convincing 11-2 win over Boca Raton last night at home. In their three previous games, albeit against top competition, SA had tallied a total of 15 goals. Last night saw some adjustments made that led to more offensive flow and more goals. The game started slowly as it looked like Andy Wheeler’s (Rutgers) first of three goals would be the only score of the first period. Then with no time on the clock SA long stick Reid McCool took a ‘Hail Mary’ shot from about 35 yards out that looked like it was deflected in front, and managed to sneak by Boca goalie Nick Martin (Delaware). It took a while for the referees to decide but they gave the goal and the period ended 2-0. SA stretched the lead to 3 before Boca scored their only goal of the half via Nick Schultz (Rollins) on a nice look from Nick McCabe. Grant Mahler (Cornell) and Conor Whipple (Georgetown) combined twice later in the period, each feeding the other to make the score 5-1 at the half. Unlike their previous game against STA, Boca tightened up their defensive schemes and SA really had to work for all of their looks. On the other end Boca was able to get some good looks, mostly on middie dodges to the right, but hit a few posts and were stoned by SA goalie Corey Etcheverry (Sacred Heart) a number of times. Corey played a very strong game, putting up 10 saves on 11 shots faced for the three quarters he played. Boca made it easier at times for him with some questionable shot placement. Just like in the STA game Boca tended to not change planes when shooting and often tried to substitute speed for placement on their shots. This game would have been much closer if Boca’s shooting were more effective. Over the course of the game SA started to utilize more inverts and that led to more crease cutting and some backdoor scores. SA’s offense had gotten pretty stagnant the prior three games and relied too much on middie dodging. SA stretched out the lead by dominating the third quarter, with Wheeler finishing his hat trick. SA’s EMO went 4-5 in the first three quarters while Boca went 0 for 3. SA played a ball control game for the most part and took advantage of their EMO. Boca’s Tripp Whitney scored in the fourth for Boca’s last tally and SA finished it up with two late goals. Statistically the game went as follows: Face-offs: SA 11 – Boca 5 (Boca’s only first half wins were on procedures) Shots: SA 34 – Boca 25 SOG’s: SA 20 – Boca 14 Turnovers: 20 each team Boca took 7 penalties and SA 4. Boca went 0 for 4 on EMO and SA went 4 for 7. Wheeler led SA with 3 goals and 1 assist while Conor Whipple put up 2G/3A and Grant Mahler added 2 and 1. McCool, Nick Ranta (Furman), Stephen Reall (St. John’s) and Ben Kennedy added goals for SA. Schultz and Whitney tallied for Boca and McCabe and Martin Murphy added assists for Boca. A nice crowd showed up for the mid-week ‘derby’ among Boca-based schools. St. Andrew’s returns to action on Friday when they host Tampa Jesuit while Boca Raton host an improving Calvary Christian team, also on Friday.