By Brian Davis Saturday the U15 National Championships saw our Florida teams eliminated from competition but it was great to see our guys playing in such a deep field.

In the  8:00 game Team Florida Navy fell to # 9 seed NESLL.  Although they didn’t advance they kept their heads up.  The boys know they are a very young bunch in a field where most teams are comprised of rising sophomores. We got a chance to speak with Maclay rising freshman Garritt Schwarz.  He was having a great time and enjoying the experience.  Coach Ryan Healy told us he was proud of the effort by the Navy team although they were overmatched in size and experience. At 9:00 the #19 seeded Florida Swashbucklers faced the #14 Next Level team.  Although The Swash led at the half 4-3, they could not hold on.  Next Level came back on a four goal effort by Drew Edwards to eliminate the Swash 7-5.  Austin Strazulla led the way for the Swashbucklers with two goals.

Team Florida and The Storm also faced off at 9:00.  Five minutes into the game Storm was up 2-1 with one goal each for Bernhardt and Packer.  Storm scored on a great shot by a defender on transition to get the lead.  Then Team Florida would score the next four goals, one of them short handed to take a three goal lead.  The Storm looked to be relying heavily on Andrew Packer while Team Florida was really spreading it around. Tenacious rides and superior ground ball work was making the difference for Team Florida through the later part of the first half.  Andrew Packer finally stopped the bleeding for the Storm as he scored his second.  But Team Florida answered back to take a 6-3 lead into half time.  At least five different players had scored for Team Florida during the first half.

Packer got his hat trick one and a half minutes into the second half to cut the lead to two.  The teams would trade goals over the next few minutes with Trevor Keena scoring twice to make it 7-6 with 9:30 left the game. Storm’s Nick Calabria converted an EMO opportunity to tie the game at 7.  Then Team Florida picked up the pace with a three goal run to make it 10-7 with 2:00 left in the game and hung on to become the last Florida team standing.  The well-rounded attack of Team Florida should be noted.  Nine different players scored for Team Florida Carolina and goalie Nick Beattie of Winter Park came up with some big saves down the stretch. Unfortunately for Team Florida the seeding was not kind.  They ran into FCA in the next round.  While FCA scored early Team Florida came back with a nice, long possession and earned a couple of good looks.  But FCA goalie, Joseph McSorley of Calvert Hall, was

tremendous.  He stuffed everything Team Florida could throw at him and sent it downfield in one motion creating fast breaks out of Team Florida’s shots. Creekside’s Julian Bonilla did a nice job at the face off X for Team Florida but the big, fast, swarming FCA defense put a quick stop to most Team Florida possessions which negated the scoring threat of Team Florida’s high powered attack trio of  Jared Bernhardt, Luis Langford, and Davis Craynor.   FCA’s attackmen Preston Foecher and Forry Smith were nearly unstoppable.  Smith is a Steele Stanwick type of feeder and was hitting cutters with precision accuracy. FCA plays with a combination of relentless pressure and patience which keeps the ball and the defense moving constantly for long possessions ending in high quality close shots.  It just wore down the Team Florida defense.  Gulliver Prep’s Trevor Pelletier was able to come up with Team Florida’s only goal of the game as FCA advanced to the quarterfinals with a 12-1 victory. FCA went on to defeat the Long Island Express Turtles in the quarter finals and were then eliminated by the defending champions Long Island Express Barracudas.  The Barracudas will play 3D Select for the U15 National Championship at noon on Sunday.  For a live blog of that game check in with LaxMagazine’s Paul Krome.