Is it the fastest game on feet? After this one I’d have to say, “Heck Yea!” The lofty men who tinker with rules think that specialization and how a face off guy holds his stick is what slows the game down.  I say it’s the soft zone.

I had heard of the Barron Collier defense referred to as a “zone.”  And, technically, I guess that’s true.  But, if you’ve watched teams run a 3-3 zone defense and let the opposition pass the ball around the horn and hold it at X while they look for an open cutter – that’s a zone.  This thing is a whole different animal. St. Thomas won the opening face off and wasted no time getting a couple of early shots off. They ended up turning it over and BC ran a fast break the other way and STA had the ball again off the save. STA then turned the ball over again under intense pressure.  BC attempted to move the ball down the field and St. Thomas was flagged for an illegal hit. And we were still only 1:40 into the game. Barron Collier set up a nice EMO and Drew Goodrich scored his first of four goals on the evening. Both teams spent the next several minutes playing smothering defense and taking the ball away from one another.  There were a few unforced errors,  but for the most part it was just high speed defensive play on both sides. With 3:40 left in the first quarter Alex Tuminello scored an EMO goal with a nifty underhand rolling shot. The first quarter went Barron Collier’s way in all categories except Face Offs and Goals.  BC outshot STA 7-4 and STA had turned it over 5 times to BC’s 2.  But Alec Cumella won all three face offs int he first quarter and started the second quarter the same way. He took the face off to start the second quarter down the alley and had STA up 2-1 in a matter of seconds.  That just kicked off a second quarter that had me holding my breath for much of it.  Drew Goodrich would finally answer back for BC at the 9:51 mark on a long bounce shot that found it’s way just under the cross bar. Cumella won the ensuing face off but STA just could not hold onto the ball in the face of that crazy BC defense.  That BC defense started the moment that STA got the ball.   It didn’t matter if it was a Mike Adler save, or a d-pole picking up a ground ball.  They swarmed like Piranaha.  At one point STA had three failed clears in a row and each time BC kept settling into an offensive rhythm and started blasting away.  Finally Michael O’Dea found the net for BC giving them a 3-2 lead.  In the first nine minutes of the second quarter the Cougars had taken 10 shots and had possession most of the time. Finally the Raiders got some breathing room on an EMO.  But just few seconds into it STA took a high to high shot that Zach Woods grabbed and sent right back the other way and nearly ended up in the back of the STA goal on the fast break.  But Adler was up to the task and the back and forth continued.   With only :27 seconds left in the half Dillon Lagamma found himself uncovered right off the post, got a feed on the money, and finished easily to tie it up. In the first half BC developed an advantage in time of possession.  They didn’t try to set up long possessions, but they were  able to establish the offense and get shots just about every time they had the ball.  They took 19 shots in the half.  Adler saved 8 and 3 scored, the rest were wide of the net.  For their part, the Raiders had managed 13 shots, most in transition.  Woods had made five saves and given up three goals.  St. Thomas had won every face off but BC led in turnovers by a 9-3 margin which pretty much negated the face off advantage for the Raiders. The third quarter started out fast once again.  Take aways at both ends of the field.  In fact, there were three take aways in the first minute of the quarter.  This wasn’t sloppy offense it was just crazy swarming defense, quick double teams, and two teams who wanted the ball back when they didn’t have it. At 8:58 Tuminello scored again for STA after a short possession.  Once again they won the face off but BC took it away and BC was able to set up some offense.  At 7:30 Goodrich finished his Hat Trick and tied the game at 4 each. Later in the third with under three minutes left a St. Thomas long pole was attempting to clear the ball and was checked by a BC player.  His stick went flying end over end and the ball came free.  Louie Yovino picked the ball out of the air before it had a chance to hit the ground and caught everyone just a little flat footed.  It was enough of an advantage to open a crease and he sprinted down the alley to give the Raiders a 5-4 lead with 2:44 left in the third. Things got a little crazy after that.  Barron Collier won the face off with some excellent wing play (they won two in the third quarter.) The Cougars ended up with a shot on the possession and Adler made a save.  As STA advanced the ball on the clear Adler came out of the cage and was up near the restraining line when STA lost he ball out of bounds.  A BC player picked up the ball and the ref gave him a quick restart with Adler still 20 or more yard from his goal.  BC converted the opportunity and appeared to have tied it up.  After a conference the officials determined that they should have allowed him the five seconds to return to his crease.  They disallowed the goal and gave possession to BC for a new restart. Now, some folks were upset about this on Twitter and I wasn’t sure what the rule is.  So I contacted a very good Central Florida area referee who is a good friend of the site.  He believes they did the right thing.  The rule does not say that the five seconds is for backing up a shot only.  It just says the he gets five seconds or until he returns to the crease and is ready before the restart.  As far as pulling it out of the goal, he said referees, “Need to get the call right regardless, don’t move on and ignore it. Fix it then while you still can and explain to coaches, ignore parents.” Which appeared to me to be just what happened. And then, Barron Collier would get get goal number five on the possession anyway about :30 seconds later.  So it all worked out and we had a tie game once again. With short time left in the third quarter a successful Raider ride ended up with a turnover and the ball in the stick of RJ Curtin who scored to make it 6-5 St. Thomas just before the quarter ended.  The Cougars once again out shot the Raiders 12-7 in the third quarter.  Both teams turned it over six times and Alec Cumella was still on fire at the X winning 4 out of 6. Cumella took the fourth quarter face off on a procedure call and it looked like STA was starting to find something in the BC defense they could work with.  Before they could get anything going, however Barron Collier’s Beckett Hagland took a shot which was deflected by a defender.  It bounced, rolled, and spun in a crazy arch and found it’s way into the goal to tie the game at six. The game started approaching a point where something had to give. The more STA was getting guys open in that 1-4-1 the more BC cranked up the defensive pressure.  They are very fast and athletic and every space is filled instantly.  STA started cranking up the pressure with their own defense and was able to get a failure to advance call on a ride.  With the always dangerous restart at the midfield line STA moved it upfield in a hurry and once again had Dillon Lagamma uncovered in front of the goal and he gave the Raiders the lead again 7-6. The next several minutes was all defense and transition.  Smothering defense at both ends of the field led to quick shots or turnovers and end to end play.  Barron Collier was giving STA fits on their clears and Adler was having to use his feet more.  After one adventure up the field he was injured.  He was down for several scary minutes but was able to walk off the field under his own power.  It was a tough time for a goalie change as Ben Tobin stepped in and after a brief warm up he was in the fire. STA set up a possession and called time out.  The Raiders came out of the time out looking composed and ran a nice play that ended with a pass to Revin Koss who was ready to let a fast shot go from the top and gave the Raiders a two goal lead with 2:18 left in the game. Barron Collier won the face off and got a shot off but Tobin was up to the task and made the save.  The Raiders turned it over at the other end and ended up getting flagged for two penalties and found themselves in a 6 on 4 man down situation.  Shortly after play started they caused a ground ball but committed a cross check in the scrum for the ball and it was 6 on 3.  The energy level in the stadium ramped up as the seconds ticked by but STA was able to kill off the first two penalties.  Just as the third man was about to be released they scored to get within one goal with 1:18 left in the game. The Raiders won the face off but BC got the ball back.  With only :45 left in the game Zach Telitz scored the game tying goal. STA nearly ended it in regulation as they won the ensuing face off and got off a hard shot with four seconds left on the clock.  Zach Woods was able to get enough on the ball to deflect it up and over the cage and sent the game into OT. Cumella came up with the ball off of the face off to start the over time and the Raiders called a time out.  That face off was credited by head coach Terry Crowley as the most pivotal moment in the game.  “I can’t say enough about that team over there (BC), they beat the crap out of us all night long.  What won that game for us was that last possession – Alec Cumella.” “Once we won that opening face off we knew we would get a good play drawn up in the huddle,” said RJ Curtin after the game.  “We had Louie (Yovino) up at the top and I popped up to the outside and I caught it.  I was supposed to be time and room, but since they were in zone they got underneath me and I got over top of it  and got my hands free and I let it go.” And let it go he did.  The shot just ripped to the top left corner and it was over just like that. St. Thomas Aquinas will face off against Benjamin in the semi-final game at 7:00 on Friday May 2nd at IMG Academy.  You can buy advanced tickets on-line by clicking here or visiting the FHSAA.org website.