A term that had lied dormant for awhile arose from the ashes last night and made its appearance in West Orange around 7:00pm. Fighting a steady rainfall for the first half Saint Andrews put together their best 48 minutes of lacrosse all season by winning all facets of the game in a 14-3 shellacking of Benjamin. Benjamin was coming into the game with all of the confidence in the world, having knocked off Jupiter and Vero in their run to the final four. But somewhere along the line a light switch went off in the SA collective and the extra wattage lit up SA’s team offense and team defense, and Benjamin wasn’t privy to the extra current. There is really no other way to describe the way this game played out. First half face-offs? 8-4 SA First half Shots? SA 21 – Benjamin 9 First half SOGs? SA 15 – Benjamin 7 9-2 halftime for SA. And that was the better scoring half for Benjamin. It is easy to just look at the scoring book and say ‘this was the Conor Whipple story offensively’, but it wasn’t. Although Conor scored SIX first half goals on his way to tying the FHSAA single game Final Four record of 8 goals it was far more than that. A number of Conor’s early goals, even if technically unassisted, came from a complete team offensive performance, whether from others dodging and feeding him directly for assists or from his teammates getting him into position to make a final one-on-one dodge himself. SA’s offense hit on all cylinders in that marvelous first half, controlling the ball in the tough conditions, making easy clears and just basically making life difficult for Benjamin’s defense in many ways. Even when Benjamin gained possession they were ridden by SA’s attack and midfield into 12 first-half turnovers, some simply of losing possession while attempting to pass. And when Benjamin did get settled on the offensive end they met the last three lines of resistance, which in order were: The defensive play of SA’s midfield (easily the least appreciated part of SA’s play all year) A stout defensive game plan carried out to perfection by SA’s long poles (Armour, Weprin, Lounsbury, McCool, Bargas, etc. doing their best Steel Curtain imitation) A red hot Corey Etcheverry, who saved 9 of the 11 shots he faced when Benjamin’s excellent offense finally got good looks. And it turned out to be a long day for Benjamin’s top offensive players. Star attackman Robert Jacobs was taken out of the game completely, scoring only a late consolation goal in the final seconds of his terrific high school career. Freshman Andrew Packer, who stunned Vero with a five-goal performance, was not able to repeat the Vero performance. There were just no answers for Benjamin today. The first quarter started off on Whipple’s first just 53 seconds into the game off a Nick Ranta feed. Ranta cut down the right alley and found Whipple all alone across the crease for the easy tally. Grant Mahler, who won 7 of the 8 face-offs in the first (showing to everyone that he is not only the most COMPLETE midfielder in the state but maybe the best all around player, period), won another, and in the ensuing loose ball scramble Whipple picked up the ball and ran down the right side before cutting towards the goal and placing his second behind Benjamin goalie Anthony Cicio (who really didn’t play badly either despite the scoring barrage – most of the goals were close in looks) to make it 2-0 at the 10:46 mark. The two teams settled down a little and the score remained the same until Whipple scored his third on a middle cut, being fed perfectly from behind the goal by Stephen Reall, whose game totals of 1G/1A did not reflect how effective he played, to make it 3-0 at 4:53. Benjamin’s Ryan Sylvester brought the Benjamin fans to life with a nice solo dodge from the left side, beating Etcheverry to make it 3-1 at 4:05. But any momentum Benjamin hoped to gain was quickly extinguished in the final two minutes of the period as Whipple, Reall and Ranta all scored unassisted goals to make it 6-1 at the end of the period. The second started out the same as Jake Levine got into the act with his first of three on a middle dodge from the left side with 9:10 left in the second. Whipple scored his fifth from Andy Wheeler’s skip pass across the crease on the EMO at the 8:11 mark. That was it until the final minute of the half when the teams traded goals to make it 9-2 at the half. Whipple took Ranta’s feed and fired home a left wing shot and Charlie Nicklaus won the ensuing face-off, popping it forward and going straight down the middle, bouncing one home. Any thoughts of a second half Benjamin comeback were dashed as SA scored in the first minute of the second half, Whipple again with the dunk shot on the crease following Levine’s cross crease feed at 11:05. At 6:41, Levine and Wheeler combined for an EMO tally with Wheeler finding Levine all alone in front. Whipple then closed out his day with his record-tying eighth on Levine’s feed from left wing at 4:12 to make the score 12-2 after three. SA substituted Connor Poetzinger in for Etcheverry to start the fourth. In the fourth, Levine scored unassisted to complete his hat trick, curling from behind the cage on a delayed call at 9:54. Wheeler then scored unassisted, picking up a loose ball and running solo down the middle before beating Cicio with the shot at 6:46. Jacobs then scored the final goal with 12 seconds left from his favorite spot in close to make the final 14-3. The final team statistics were: Face-Offs: SA 10 – Benjamin 10, as Nicklaus got untracked in the second half Shots: SA 37 – Benjamin 22 (the 22 a tribute to the SA team defense) SOGs: SA 24 – Benjamin 16 Turnovers: SA 17 – Benjamin 22 SA took 6 penalties and Benjamin 3 Individual Statistics Whipple led SA with his 8 goals, Levine added 3G/2A, Ranta and Wheeler with 1G/2A each and Reall with his 1G/1A. Benjamin scored three unassisted goals, with Sylvester, Jacobs and Nicklaus one each. For Benjamin they will be losing a number of key pieces for next season in Jacobs, Nicklaus, Phillip Benz, Colby Kempe (a big injury loss from earlier in the season) and Ryan Rengasawmy. They do return a nice foundation to build on next season in Cicio, Packer, All-American long-pole Jerry O’Connor (who made two of the the best individual plays I’ve seen a long pole make in the playoff season) and middies McKenna Johnston and Luke Pingleton. However, after the game, Coach Riordan Cheatham told me he was going to step down as head coach to focus more on the middle school so that he could spend more time with his family. I’m sorry to hear that as Coach Cheatham was always generous to me with his time and is one of the really good guys I’ve gotten to know over this season. More power to you for putting family first! And don’t be a stranger; you’ve done a lot for your school and this great sport. For Saint Andrews, a familiar position to be in. Playing for a state championship against their biggest in-state rival, Lake Highland; again. But this time it just feels different. Like something special might occur Saturday night in the West Orange High School stadium. If you are a fan of lacrosse and live in the Orlando area, don’t miss this one. You might regret it forever.