
Stoneman Douglas Survives Late Pine Crest Run To Win District 27
Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in Uncategorized.
When crack national personality Lee Roggenburg calls to tell you he can’t make a district final because he is attending a charity event, FLN readers clearly lose an insightful and colorful review of the contest. 
His sidekick photographer once in a while gets the opportunity to tell a story in photos (because you simply cannot write and take pictures at the same time).
The photographer spent the day in Broward County at a charity event of his own, so we chose the District 27 final played on a beautiful night on a beautiful field at Cardinal Gibbons in Ft. Lauderdale.
Arriving with five minutes left in the first
quarter, the score was tied at one apiece. Douglas goes up 3-1, Pine Crest gets back to 3-2 and then Douglas runs off three to take a 6-2 lead into halftime.
Each team tallied a goal in the third to make it 7-3. Then the fun began.
Douglas strikes in the first minute to extend the margin to 8-3. Three minutes later the Panthers make it 8-4, then 8-5. The Eagles get it their last goal, which turns out to be the winner to make in 9-5 with six minutes left on the clock.
Game over.
Not so much. 9-6 40 seconds later. 9-7 less than a minute after that. 9-8 with 1:41 to go, a lifetime in this sport. Pine Crest gets off shots to tie, but good defense and goalie play keep Stoneman Douglas a hard fought victory.
My impressions were many. For the Stoneman Douglas Eagles, senior goalie David Landess (#19) was almost flawless. Senior defenseman Kyle Gurr (#13) appeared in my sights throughout the game. He was a force. Senior Max Buckner (#33, shown in the feature photo at the top) played a smart game at attack. It was clear this was an experience and skilled team. Passes were crisp and the suffocating defense had to be tough to break. In the end, the experience was the difference.
The Pine Crest Panthers upon first sight looked like a young team, and I mean physically. The players did not seem to have the larger, thicker bodies of the Eagles, 
and I found out that indeed this is a very young squad. It turns out two eighth graders are on the roster, including attackman Kameron Katsch who was in position to take one of the last shots. He played beyond his years. Junior face off middie Hutch Torregosa gave fits to Florida Southern commit Kevin Horwitz, one of the best I’ve watched. Good luck, Kevin, at the next level. Coach Ward is lucky to get you. Sophomore middie Jeremy Oletsky and senior goalie Ryan Fiedler stood out.
For those of you I did mention, remember I am a just a photo guy.
I hope you are shown in the pictures. This was a great game, between a mature,
ready to make a deep run bunch from Stoneman Douglas and a young, very up and coming group from Pine Crest.
Thanks for letting me join you last night!














