Last night St. Thomas Aquinas stopped flying under the radar and gave notice that they deserve to be considered state championship contenders by one and all. The story of the game was shooting; shooting and some strategic decisions Boca made on defense that STA was clearly able to take advantage of. STA shot 39 times and put an astonishing 30 of them on net, converting on 60% of those. That was a combination of having a great shooting night and the number of clean open looks from straight on, off fast breaks. In particular the Boca defense decided to focus more on staying with their STA attackmen instead of sliding towards the STA midfielders on unsettled situations. The game started quickly for STA as Fernando Milanes (Jacksonville commit) scored the first of his three goals less than a minute into the game. Boca’s long pole Harrison Rodermor tied the score on a solo dash, but that was the last time the score would remain close. STA would score 4 goals in under 4 minutes, two by Kyle Mamane (on way to his team high 5 goals) to stretch the lead to 5-1. Boca’s Nick McCabe (1G, 2A) pulled one back to make it 5-2 after one. STA’s dominance was even more remarkable given that they were flagged for five penalties in the quarter. Boca was able to get good looks but wasn’t able to hit the net enough. STA continued the assault in the second, outscoring Boca 4-1 to take a 9-3 lead into halftime. STA goalie Ben Tobin saved 5 of the 8 on goal attempts and Boca continued to miss great opportunities, including twice hitting the posts in a short period of time. Over the past two seasons Boca has pulled off some remarkable comebacks and STA was aware of that. The third quarter started in a way that left no doubt what STA’s intentions were. In the FIRST minute of the second half STA won four straight face-offs by Joey Dorn (Providence commit), leading to four straight fast break goals by middies. Boca’s stategy on those was not to stop the ball carrier if a middie and they reacted way too late, hanging goalie Nick Martin (Delaware commit) out to dry. STA added four more goals in the period to take a 17-3 lead into the fourth. The teams split goals in the last period, played fully under running time, to make the final 18-4. Thankfully, unlike a number of other games played recently, the two teams kept their cool and no cheap shots were taken. Kudos to both sides for not letting that happen. Junior R.J. Curtin (Delaware) played a quiet game as Boca focused on taking him out of the game. Revin Kos (Johns Hopkins) is out for the season with a knee injury. STA was led by Mamane’s 5 goals, Milanes’ 3 and Griffin Melzer’s 3G and 1A. Nick McCabe had Boca’s only mulit-point game. Statistically, the game showed: Face-offs: STA 17 – 7 Shots: STA 39 – Boca 28 SOG: STA 30 – Boca 17 Turnovers: STA 18 – Boca 17 Penalties: Boca 7 – STA 6 STA is back in action on Monday when they host University School while Boca visits Palm Beach Central on the same day.