St. Andrew’s boys defend 1A title

For the first time since the sport was sanctioned in 2008, two teams from the same county squared off for the state championship.

Defending state champion St. Andrew’s did not disappoint as it seized a 6-3 halftime advantage and held off a late charge by Benjamin to win its sixth state-sanctioned title with a 9-7 win over the Buccaneers Saturday at the Paradise Sports Complex in Naples for the Class 1A state championship. It was the 22nd state lacrosse title for the school dating back to 1982 before the state sanctioning.

St. Andrew’s (20-3) and Benjamin were the top two ranked boys teams in the state, according to MaxPreps.

The Scots won four of the first five state championships, including the first three when the sport was first sanctioned in 2008. They also won last year.

“It is hard. It is very, very difficult to repeat as state champions,” said St. Andrew’s boys lacrosse coach Tony Seaman, whose team won its 10th straight match. “You have to have kids that are focused and it is so easy sometimes when practice is hard and when things aren’t going your way to say, ‘we won last year, let’s relax.’ ”

“I am sure of the quality of opponents back then wasn’t what it is now,” Seaman added. “I have two coaches on staff that were on those teams and they said they were winning by 16 and 17 goals. There are so many good travel teams around now and the quality has improved. Benjamin is a really good program.”

Benjamin seized a 1-0 lead with 6:31 left in the first quarter on a goal by senior Jack Regnery, but St. Andrew’s wasted little time in equalizing on a goal by junior Zach Brent just 11 seconds later.

Freshman Dylan Furshman gave Benjamin a 2-1 advantage with 3:44 left in the first quarter before the Scots ran off four straight goals — senior Quin McGowan, junior Jack Schulte, sophomore Connor Hofbauer and junior Cole Hofbauer — to seize a 5-2 lead. Furshman pulled the Buccaneers to within 5-3 before senior Kurt Schwarz padded the lead to 6-3 at the intermission.

McGowan scored the lone goal in the third quarter to push the lead to 7-3 before Regnery and Connor Hofbauer traded goals to open the final quarter.

Benjamin then mounted a comeback scoring three goals ( junior Carter Smith, Furshman and junior Leo Byrne) in the final 5:16, but were unable to pull out the win.

“It’s disappointing,” said Benjamin coach Peter Cordrey. “Our game plan was spread out the offense and be more deliberate and we got away from that a little bit, especially in the second quarter.”

Cordrey said Palm Beach County and South Florida offer the best teams in the state.

“It is probably the best county in the state,” Cordrey said. “It is quite a gauntlet to run through. I am proud of the kids. They didn’t give up. We have a young group with some great senior leadership.”

Seaman agreed: “There are so many outstanding teams in South Florida, including Oxbridge Academy, Pine Crest. St. Thomas Aquinas, Jupiter. The list goes on and on.”

In matchup of nation’s top two ranked teams, No. 1 Heritage-Delray girls edged by Lake Highland Prep:

In a matchup of the nation’s top-ranked teams, Lake Highland Prep’s Jacqueline Jaskiewicz scored four goals and added an assist as the Highlanders stunned defending FHSAA Class 1A state champion American Heritage-Delray 10-8.

American Heritage-Delray (18-3) entered the game as the top-ranked team in the country according to MaxPreps. Lake Highland (18-2) entered as the No. 2.

Lake Highland jumped out to a 2-0 advantage before the Stallions scored five of the next six goals to take a 5-3 lead.

Senior Carli Fleisher and sophomore Carolyn Byrd each scored twice, while sophomore Brooke Goldstein scored the first of her two goals as the teams were deadlocked at 5-5 at halftime after goals by Lake Highland Prep’s Casey Richbourg and Jaskiewicz knotted the game with 3:37 remaining in the first half.

“The game was tied 5-5 at the half and basically the ball bounced their way,” said American Heritage-Delray coach John McClain. “We had opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, but at the end of the day, both teams played amazingly hard and they put a nice game plan together and they prevailed.”

Lake Highland made it 8-5 with three goals in a seven-minute span to open the second half before the Stallions closed to within 9-8 on goals by junior Dakota Riggio, Goldstein and Byrd. Kate Hanlon scored the clincher for the Highlanders with a little less than three minutes remaining for the 10-8 win.

The Stallions had won nine consecutive games and hadn’t lost to a Florida team all season. The only two losses for American Heritage-Delray were to teams from Maryland. The teams met March 1 with the Stallions winning 13-6.

Aquinas rallies past Ponte Vedra to win 2A boys final:

Senior Chase Garey scored twice within 11 seconds in the final minute as St. Thomas Aquinas rallied past Ponte Vedra 13-12 to capture the Class 2A boys state championship.

After Ponte Vedra (19-4) seized a 12-11 lead on a goal by Jack Reed with 1:47 remaining in the game, the Sharks were trying to run out the clock when one of their players stepped out of bounds behind the goal turning the ball over.

Garey responded with a goal with a minute remaining to tie the game off a pass from fellow senior Gio Villasana and another with 49 seconds left to give the state’s third-ranked Raiders (17-3) their 13th straight victory and third state title in school history.

St. Thomas also won in 2016 and 2017 and lost in the state finals in 2019.

“This state title means everything,” Garey said. “Nothing compares to it. I accomplished what I came to St. Thomas to do. I have been playing 9, 10 years with my brothers [teammates] and I am not playing lacrosse in college, so this was my last ride. I wanted to go out on top.

“We were trailing by one goal, and I just remember back to 2019 and I lost the first state championship game I ever played in,” Garey added. “I thought I couldn’t have that feeling happen again. Everyone was exhausted, and everyone was tired. Someone had to step up and decided to take that wing. I do not recall ever scoring two goals in 11 seconds. That was definitely a first.”

The teams waited out a three-hour weather delay before the Raiders stormed out of the gate scoring the game’s first four goals as seniors Jacob Urbano, Michael Milanes, Garey and Nico Cash all found the back of the net to give St. Thomas Aquinas a 4-0 lead.

Ponte Vedra, which entered the game winning six straight, fought all the way back to seize a 7-6 lead at the intermission. The teams traded goals with Ponte Vedra taking a 10-8 lead with 3:36 left in the third.

St. Thomas managed to tie the game on a goal by Urbano at 11-11 with 7:03 remaining.

The Aquinas girls team came up just short of the 2A final, their furious rally from a 7-2 halftime deficit against Vero Beach ending up a goal shy, 7-6.