After the game.  Not during. Who says a 4-3 lacrosse game isn’t entertaining? Two separate agendas.  Jupiter looking to stay undefeated, Barron Collier looking to make a statement on the big stage. Mission accomplished . . . by both. Two very different approaches to defense were on display Friday night.  The man-to-man of Jupiter with its individual brilliance versus Barron Collier’s nightmare match-up zone with its team brilliance.  Interestingly enough the winning goal actually resulted from the one time BC went man-to-man.  Because it had to down one with 4 minutes left. One play. Peter Cox isolating down low to the right of the crease, backing in, feeding Alex Derrico when double-teamed cutting down the middle.  Derrico fought off his check and bounced one past Barron Collier goalie Zach Woods with 3:20 left to make it 4-2 and that became the eventual game winner. Exciting doesn’t always mean well played and this game certainly had its share of sloppy play.  Barron Collier will have nightmares of fast breaks gone awry and missed nets on good looks.  And Jupiter will cringe when they review film of poor passes, posts hit and not recognizing brief openings when working against the zone. But it was exciting. There were more turnovers than shots.  Much of it from trying to do too much.  And mostly from being forced.  There’s a subtle difference because at the high school level the ability to manage a game as a player is tougher because of the experience levels.  And as the game went on the turnovers became more of frustration leading to trying to make the pass too perfect, guiding the ball instead of confidently firing it.  Or forcing the shot on the break when one more step or two would have made the difference. But either way each team learned a lot about themselves last night and that only helps down the road. Barron Collier controlled play in the first quarter, outshooting Jupiter 5-1 and took the lead when long pole Michael Nathan stripped the ball in his defensive zone and took off down the left side of the field before cutting to the middle and firing a 5-yard shot past Jupiter goalie Viper Scheele to make it 1-0 just 26 seconds into the game.  BC then followed that up at 7:37 on Drew Goodrich’s unassisted tally (editor’s note – I had it wrong at first, thanks to BC sources for correcting it), backing in from the left wing and splitting two defenders before bouncing one in to the top of the cage to make 2-0.  Jupiter settled down and got one back on their only shot of the period as Austin Starts took Lars Coughlin’s right wing feed and fired a step down bullet from up top to make it 2-1 with 4:34 left in the 1^st and that is where the period ended. Jupiter tied the game at 2 midway through the second quarter on Zach Crotty’s unassisted tally with 7:16 left in the half.  Crotty took a pass on the right side, split two defenders to the middle and back-handed one past Woods.  The teams combined for 15 turnovers in the period and the half ended tied at 2 as neither team was able to solve the other’s defenses. Jupiter took the lead in the third as they dominated possession time when Ben White scored unassisted with 6:20 left, cutting in from the left wing against the zone and firing a low shot to the short side, giving them their first lead at 3-2.  Baron Collier was hurt by taking 4 penalties in the period and failed to get a shot off as they committed turnovers when fast break opportunities presented themselves.  Jupiter also will look at this period as one of missed opportunities as their time of possession advantage was dissipated by only hitting the net 4 times on 11 shots due to not getting inside against the zone, and their own turnovers.  They even failed to get a shot on net while on a 6-4 man-up. BC took heart from the score at the beginning of the fourth and pressed for the equalizer.  But even though they got shots on the net they were not able to beat Scheele, who really stepped it up in the fourth, and Jupiter was able to weather the early pressure.  BC’s momentum was hurt in the quarter by three more penalties (7-0 in the second half) but Jupiter also helped keep them in the game with turnovers of their own.  After a Jupiter time out with about 4 minutes to go, Coach Loftus set up a play that was based on assuming BC would come out man-to-man and the strategy paid off with the Derrico goal noted above.  BC did not quit and Matt Hobden made a terrific play with 1:36 left to cut the lead back to one.  He cut to the middle and made a tough catch between two defenders and fired a right-handed shot from straight away off Haglund’s right wing feed to set up a possible nail-biting finish.  But Jupiter won the following face-off and was pretty much able to run off the final time of the clock, aided by the last penalty on BC, and Jupiter’s ball carriers showed great maturity in not going for the open goal as the game ended 4-3. I’ll leave the team stats alone for this one except to note the 7-2 penalties.  While a couple were certainly 50-50 calls from my vantage point I don’t think they were the deciding factor.  Both schools will look at the lost opportunities as the key and we will be left with one thing; one play made by one player late in the game that made the difference. As so many games do. Thanks to Coaches Loftus and Carter (another Hobart homeboy!) for talking to me before and after the game.  There’s a very good possibility we could see this rematch in Bradenton in the semi-finals on an even bigger stage. Jupiter returns to action on Tuesday, travelling to Boca Raton to take on Saint Andrew’s in a Top 5 match-up and Barron Collier travels to Palmetto Ridge, also on Tuesday.   Individual Statistics   Austin Starts, Zach Crotty, Ben White and Alex Derrico scored a goal each and Peter Cox and Lars Coughlin added an assist each Michael Nathan,  Drew Goodrich and Matt Hobden scored for Barron Collier while Beckett Haglund added an assist.