Skip to main content

Wells Dusenbury’s Sun-Sentinel Coverage of the Battle of Undefeateds as AH/Delray Defeats Barron Collier 17-7

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in .
  FLN site buddy Wells Dusenbury and I attended the so rare meeting of two late season undefeated teams on Wednesday as the 15-0 Barron Collier Girl’s team traveled across Alligator Alley for the matchup with 12-0 American Heritage/Delray.  We witnessed two teams that are certainly threats to head to Jupiter for the Final Four, from separate quadrants.  AH/D looks to be the overwhelming favorite right now from the southeast region and it looks like BC is on a collision course with Vero Beach for their region. Although AH/D was able to jump out early and pretty much cruise to the win I wouldn’t fully count out BC as a state contender too.  They can meet again in the semis if my bracket knowledge is correct.  Wells’ obviously represents a southeast Florida region and the article will be more focused on the win for AH/B.  I can’t read it since I already reached my limit of free articles for the month but I do want to mention the play of Emily Browne of Barron Collier, who is a dynamic player in her own right.  I chuckled in the stands behind the BC fans when I heard the nickname ‘Nugget’ for her and given she looks 5′ tall if I am being generous that’s what I was told was the origin of it.  After the game, while talking with the BC coaching staff they indicated that her nickname was one of the more ‘logical’ ones, so it sounds like the team has a pretty good esprit de corps among them.  Browne accounted for 3G/1A in the game and the rest of the BC scoring was spread out. One thing to note after watching the girls game is that I think there might need to be some severe changes to the girls game over the next decade, maybe even the introduction of a second version of it for the players to choose from.  Keep the traditional game for those that want to play it and maybe a light-contact version (regardless of what the intent is for the current version there certainly is some light contact going on out there) based on the Boy’s rules, complete with full padding like the Boys and similar sticks for those who want to play that way. The more I watch the Girls’ game the more worried I get that the athleticism, and the natural proclivity for pretty much any Girl’s sport to evolve towards the male version over time, will outgrow the focus of this sport, which is built on more finesse and team work.  To anyone who doubts this last point I suggest you go to YouTube and pull up a college basketball game in the 90’s at the NCAA D1 level and compare it to today’s game.  The game went from something that looked a lot like lacrosse in its’ finesse, outside shooting and passing patterns to one that features a LOT of contact and even some of the ‘bad habits’ of the Boys’ side.  It is a VERY similar comparison to lacrosse today versus where the game is heading. Or for that matter we now have ice hockey and football for the Girls and those seem to be evolving over time in a similar fashion. I’m starting to see little signs already.  There’s free spot attempts where the college player is now winding up for heavy sidearm rips to top corners that I don’t remember witnessing a few years ago and that’s got to be a combination of stick technology and athletic strength and this will only continue to evolve. The Men’s game is ENTIRELY different today from my college games as the stick technology has changed to favor ball carrying at the expense of shooting precision.  And the Girl’s game is now starting that trend too. Games like I saw last night, with the combination of one on one dodging and passing enhanced by great vision, might well be a thing of the past if the game isn’t radically assessed.   Here’s Wells report:   Excerpt: American Heritage-Delray’s girls lacrosse program has only been around for three seasons, but on Wednesday night it showed why it’s a legitimate contender – if not a favorite – to win the state championship this year. In a battle between two of Florida’s four undefeated teams, the Stallions (13-0) cruised past Naples Barron Collier 17-7 in non-district action in Delray Beach. The loss drops the Panthers to 15-1. “We just stepped up to the challenge,” Heritage coach John McClain said. “The girls played amazingly well. We got a lot of ground balls and we played with a ton of grit and heart.”   Read the rest HERE There are videos and highlights in the article.