Stanton’s Varsity Boys Lax team travelled to Mandarin HS to play the final 2012 regular season game on Wednesday evening April 11th.  Problem was Stanton’s team didn’t decide to show up until the beginning of the 2nd quarter!  By that time Mandarin was winning 9-1.  In an embarrassing 1st quarter performance, Stanton got manhandled.  Mandarin scored 5 goals in the first 6 minutes of the 1st quarter (often against non-existent defense), before senior middie captain Brian Swanson scored unassisted to get Stanton on the scoreboard at the 3:41 mark.  Mandarin quickly scored again to lead 6-1, then to add insult to injury, scored 3 more goals in the last minute of the 1st quarter.  Stanton was 0 for 9 in 1st quarter face-offs.  The remainder of the game was relatively evenly played, however, Mandarin was just coasting to the finish line.  The halftime score was 12-4, as Stanton got 2nd quarter goals from senior attackman Joseph Jumber (captain), junior attackman Bryan Burchard and middie Swanson scored his 2nd goal.  The score after 3 quarters was Mandarin leading 14-5 as Stanton’s sophomore Eric Bueno scored Stanton’s last goal of the game in the 3rd stanza.  The 4th quarter of the game had Mandarin scoring one last goal for the winning 15-5 tally. 

Mandarin dominated faceoffs all game winning 16 of 22 draws, as their outstanding middie Blake Wiel (2 G) dominated.  Mandarin players Silvio (#3) and Dister (#22) scored 4 goals apiece.  Stanton junior goalie Jake Patel finished with 10 saves, most on short range shots.  Stanton had 27 shots at goal and 35 groundballs (GBs).  Stanton GB leaders were middie Brian Swanson with 6, and junior defenseman Dustin Johns with 5.  Stanton plays rival Paxon HS in the FSHAA District 2 Boys Lax PLAYOFFS at Episcopal HS on Tuesday April 17th at 7:30 pm.  Please come and support your BlueDevils for this important playoff game.

Lincoln HS (Tallahassee) Boys Lax bused over to Stanton to play on Senior Night, Monday April 9th, and dominated the game winning 11-1.  Lincoln controlled all facets of the game, scoring in the 1st minute of the game and leading 3-0 after the 1st quarter.  Lincoln added another 3 goals in the 2nd quarter to lead 6-0 at half.  The Stanton defense was playing hard, but received little help from the attack or the offensive middies.  The 3rd quarter was more of the same, as Lincoln scored 2 more goals to lead 8-0, before senior attackman Joseph Jumber (Captain) FINALLY scored for Stanton.  That would be the first and last goal that Stanton scored in the game.  The 3rd period ended with Lincoln leading 10-1 and Lincoln Coach Mark Williams substituted liberally in the final quarter.  Lincoln scored only one goal in the last quarter, for the final 11-1 score.

Stanton team stats had the team with only 14 shots at the Lincoln goal and Stanton took 42 groundballs (GBs).  Stanton GB leaders were defenseman Dustin Johns with 9, goalie Jake Patel with 6, attackman Eric Bueno with 5 and Attackman Bryan Burchard and middie Carrison Hager with 4 apiece.  Patel finished with 19 saves, including 9 saves in the 1st quarter alone.  Dustin Johns took 7 of 16 faceoffs.  Stanton committed only 1 foul.

Stanton’s boys varsity lacrosse played their 1st home game in a month, hosting the Providence HS Stallions on Thursday April 5th.  Providence is an impressive 1st year FSHAA lax program and they gave Stanton all it could handle.  Stanton began the game playing well and jumped to a 2 goal lead in the 1st 9 minutes of the game on goals by attackman Joseph Jumber and Tejas Jain.  Providence scored it’s 1st goal at the 2:30 mark of the 1st quarter.  Entering the 2nd quarter Providence outplayed Stanton as the BlueDevils failure to execute resulted in 3 Providence goals all scored by their outstanding middie, Zach Price (#40).  At the 4:42 mark of the 2nd quarter junior attackman Bryan Burchard scored to pull Stanton to within 3-4, which was the halftime score.  In the beginning of the 3rd quarter, Providence scored twice (Price scored his 4th goal) to lead 6-3 at the 7:49 mark of the 3rd quarter, before the BlueDevils finally woke up and began playing good lacrosse.

Stanton would score the next 5 goals of the game.  Senior captain attackman Joseph Jumber would score 3 consecutive goals over a 3 minute period late in the 3rd quarter to tie the game 6-6 going into the final quarter.  Then junior attackman Bryan Burchard scored his 2nd goal of the game to give Stanton a 7-6 lead with 9:27 left in the game.  Senior middie Jordon Herriff then scored a goal at the 9:15 mark to give the BlueDevils a 8-6 lead.  Providence then scored with 7:41 left in the game to pull within 7-8.  The loud home crowd was really cheering loudly all throughout the 2nd half.  Attackman Burchard then scored at the 6:23 mark of the 4th quarter to give Stanton a 2 goal lead, 9-7.  Several minutes passed with Stanton controlling the play and the game appeared won with Stanton’s attack holding the ball with less than 2 minutes to play.  HOWEVER, poor passing and decison making allowed Providence to regain possession of the ball and with 50 seconds left in the game the Stallions scored to pull withing 8-9.  Providence then proceeded to win the face-off and score the tying goal, 9-9, with only 20 seconds left in the game.  Quite deflating for the Bluedevils and their home crowd.

The 1st 4 minute overtime had lots of drama, shots hitting off goals posts, great goalie saves by both teams and NO goals.  The crowd was loud.  The 2nd overtime period began and FINALLY, with only 56 seconds remaining in the 2nd overtime period, junior attackman Bryan Burchard (4G) scored the game winner, to give the Bluedevils their hard fought 10-9 win.  Attackman Burchard and Jumber (4G, 1A) were awarded game balls, however, junior goalie captain Jake Patel finished with 19 saves, 5 in overtime to preserve the victory for Stanton.  Team stats had the BlueDevils with only 29 shots.  The team had 44 GBs with GB leaders being junior defenseman Dustin Johns and senior middie captain Brian Swanson with 6  and Joseph Jumber and Jordon Herriff with 5 apiece.   Stanton’s record improved to 7-3.  Stanton’s next game is hosting Lincoln HS for SENIOR NIGHT on Monday April 9th at 5:30 pm.

Stanton Prep HS boys Lax played at Episcopal HS on Tuesday evening April 3rd and Episcopal dominated every facet of the game, winning 16-0.  Stanton’s defense played hard throughout but had great difficulty clearing the ball and Episcopal’s offense controlled the ball 80-90 % of the time.  Stanton managed only 3 shots at the Episcopal goal all game and the BlueDevils took only 22 groundballs (GBs).  The score was 0-8 at halftime and 0-13 after 3 quarters.  Junior goalie (Captain) Jake Patel played a very strong game with 16 saves and 3 GBs.  Many of his saves were on point-blank shots from Episcopal.  Junior defenseman Dustin Johns played well, taking 6 GBs, clearing well and taking 8 of 19 face-offs.  Stanton hopes to right the ship, hosting Providence HS at Stanton on Thursday April 5th at 6 pm.  This will be Stanton’s 1st home game in a month.

Stanton’s Boys Lax team rebounced on Thursday March 29th winning convincingly 12-3 at Bishop Synder HS, to improve to 6-2.  Two Stanton players, junior defenseman Dustin Johns and senior captain attackman Joseph Jumber had particularly outstanding games, setting and tying team records for groundballs (GBs) and goals scored in a game,  respectively.  Stanton quickly broke to a 2-0 in the first three minutes of the game with attackman Jumber scoring the first two of his team record tying 7 goals in a game.  Bishop Synder HS (BSHS) then scored their 1st goal of the game at the 7:22 mark of the 1st quarter.  Jumber quickly scored his 3rd and 4th goals of the game over the next 4 minutes.  BSHS closed to 2-4 with only 7 seconds remaining in the 1st quarter.

BSHS scored again to close to 3-4 at the 9:23 mark of the 2nd quarter, but that would be their last goal of the game as the Stanton defense and junior Goalie Jake Patel shut off the goal for the remainder of the game.  Junior attackman Carrison Hager quickly scored 2 goals over a 10 second period to push the BlueDevils to a 6-3 lead 9 minutes before halftime.  Jumber scored his 5th goal of the half six minutes later to push Stanton to a 7-3 halftime lead.  In the 3rd quarter Stanton scored another 5 goals, to acheive the final scvore.  Third quarter Stanton scorers were Joseph Jumber with 2, junior attackman Bryan Burchard with 2 and sophomore attackman Eric Bueno with one goal.  At the start of the 4th quarter sophomore goalie Orlando Caro took over the goaltending duties, making 3 saves during the 4th quarter.  Coach Hughes substituted liberally and every available player got playing time, including sophomore defenseman Jack Story who has just been moved up to the varsity.  Attackman Tejas Jain, middie Bobby Dawson and defenseman Devin Alexander did not play due to injuries.

Throughout the game junior defenseman and face-off man Dustin John had an impressive performance, getting a school record ELEVEN GBs, winning 14 of 19 face-offs, plus assisting on 3 goals.  Senior middie captain Brain Swanson and attackman Burchard both had 2 assists and goalie Jake Patel also had an assist.  Team stats had Stanton with 37 GBs and 47 shots at goal.  Other GB leaders were senior middie Jordon Herriff (4) and senior defenseman Matt Buser and sophomore middies Jacob Goodpasture and Charlie VanCini with 3 GBs each.  Stanton committed only 4 penalties, including an offsides.  Stanton’s man-up offenne continued to struggle, scoring only once in 9 opportunities.

Stanton’s next game is AT highly ranked Episcopal HS of Jacksonville on Tuesday evening April 3rd at 7 pm.

Coming back from Spring Break the Stanton Boys Varsity lax team played at Menendez HS in St. Johns County on Tuesday evening March 27th.  The team, especially the offense, looked like it was still taking a nap on Jax Beach!  Lax offensive fundamentals were nowhere to be found in a brutal 1st half which included only one Menendez score.  The Stanton defense and Goalie Jake Patel (16 saves, 3GB) were playing tough and getting no support from the attack or offensive middies.  In the 3rd quarter, senior middie captian Brian Swanson finally scored the BlueDevils 1st goal at the 9:09 mark to tie the game.  Six minutes later, sophomore middie Jacob Goodpasture scored a man-up goal to give Stanton a 2-1 lead.  That was it,…it was all downhill from there.  Menendez scores 2 goals in the last 1:03 of the 3rd quarter to take a 3-2 lead into the last stanza.  The defensive struggle continued until Menendez scored at the 6:36 mark of the 4th quarter to move ahead to a 4-2 lead.  Two minutes later Menendez scored again to push the lead to 5-2.  Menendez scored again at the 2:51 mark of the 4th quarter to lead 6-2.  The flood gates then opened for the Stanton defense as Menendez scored 3 more goals in the last 1:06 of the game.

Junior middie Bobby Dawson suffered a leg injury in the opening minutes of the game, which really took a toll on the Stanton attack.  Senior defenseman Devin Alexander hurt his ribs during the 3rd quarter and had to take to the bench for the remainder of the game.  Junior attackman Tejas Jain continues to rehab his left knee injury and the team hopes to see him back on the field of play in the coming weeks.  Team stats were poor, with only 23 shots on goal being taken and 34 groundballs (GBs) taken.  Stanton lost 9 of 15 face-offs, several at the end of the game leading to Menendez fastbreak goals.  Stanton GB leaders were Jordon Herriff (6), Dustin Johns (5) and Joseph Jumber, Matt Buser and Jacob Goodpasture with 4 apiece.  Coach Hughes hopes for an improved effort this Thursday AT Bishop Synder HS.  Spring Break is OVER players!

On March 13th, Stanton’s varsity boys lax team won a tough 7-6 road victory before an excited crowd at Fletcher HS’s field.  Both teams played very hard throughout the game, especially in the 2nd half.  Fletcher scored the 1st goal at the 8:35 mark of the 1st quarter and senior captain attackman Joseph Jumber scored the first of his 3 goals, to tie the game 1-1 with 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter.  Fletcher’s Jesse Godard put Fletcher ahead 2-1 with the 1st of his 4 goals at the 6:06 mark of the 2nd quarter.  Stanton senior middie Jordan Herriff answered that goal 3 minutes later, to knot the score 2-2 at halftime.  Stanton’s play throughout the 1st half was very sloppy and Coach Hughes implored the team to improve it’s play during his halftime talk.

12 penalties would be called during the game (6 on each team) however when the action heated up in the 2nd half, 9 of those 12 penalties would be called, with each team’s man-up offense and mandown defenses playing significant roles in the eventual outcome. Stanton sophomore attackman Eric Bueno put the BlueDevils up 3-2, with a nice goal on a broken Fletcher defensive clear at the 9 minute mark of the 3rd quarter.  Fletcher’s Jesse Godard responded with a man-up offense goal at the 3:45 mark of the 3rd quarter and then on the ensuing faceoff, Fletcher took the lead 4-3 on a fastbreak goal. 

Stanton then took control of the game, scoring the next 4 goals.  In the last 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter, junior middie Bobby Dawson scored to tie the game 4-4 and 35 seconds later attackman Joseph Jumber scored a man-up goal to give Stanton a 5-4 lead at the end of 3 quarters.  Jumber scored another man-up goal at the 8:23 mark of the last quarter to push Stanton’s lead to 6-4.  Junior attackman Bryan Burchard scored a goal at the 5:43 mark of the 4th quarter, to give Stanton a more comfortable 7-4 lead.  However, Fletcher wasn’t done by a long shot and they came storming back with Jesse Godard scoring his 3rd goal of the game at the 4:14 mark of the last quarter to pull the Senators to a 5-7 score.  Stanton’s committing penalties in the 4th quarter caught up with the BlueDevils, as Fletcher’s Godard scored a man-up offense goal at the 2:52 mark of the last quarter, to make the score 7-6, Stanton leading.  The final minutes of the game had plenty of drama as the Stanton defense weathering the Fletcher offensive push and goalie Jake Patel made several outstanding saves.  Patel finished the game with 12 saves (5 in the 4th quarter) and 3 groundballs (GBs).  Stanton’s Joseph Jumber and Jake Patel were awarded game balls after the game for their strong performances.

Team stats for Stanton were not impressive with the BlueDevils taking only 27 shots and 26 GBs.  Stanton won only 6 of 17 face-offs.  Stanton’s next game is away at Menendez HS on Tuesday March 27th at 6pm, after Spring Break.