Bronson Dowdell scored the tiebreaking goal with three minutes and 22 seconds remaining and Garrett Moore added the clincher two minutes later as Winter Park’s boys lacrosse team remained undefeated with a thrilling 12-10 win over Lake Mary in a Class 2A state semifinal game on Friday afternoon.
The win puts the Wildcats (19-0) in a Florida High School Athletic Association championship game for the first time. The Wildcats will play Saturday’s 8 p.m. championship at the Austin-Tindall Sports Complex in Kissimmee against the winner of Friday’s second semifinal, which pitted Jupiter (16-1) against Tampa Plant (21-1).
“It was a tough game and Lake Mary had a lot of the momentum,” Winter Park coach Ryan Healey said after his team’s hard-fought semifinal victory. “But our kids didn’t quit. Our seniors picked it up and our younger guys followed their lead. I really think our senior leadership made the difference in the game.”
Winter Park jumped on top early, getting goals from four different players, including Dowdell, to take a 4-2 lead after one period. Lake Mary answered with three consecutive goals to jump in front 5-4, but Davis Campbell and Moore countered in the final three minutes to give the Wildcats a 6-5 lead at halftime.
The Wildcats then looked poised to take control of the game as Ryan Roberts, Campbell and Carter Truesdell scored consecutive Winter Park goals to make it 9-5 midway through the third period. That momentum proved to be short-lived. Junior Joshua Donovan, Lake Mary’s leading scorer, would catch fire and bring the Rams back into the game.
Shooting from a variety of locations and angles, Donovan scored five straight goals, with the fifth one coming at the 9:50 mark of the fourth quarter to give Lake Mary a 10-9 lead.
Winter Park sophomore Griffin Moore stopped Lake Mary’s run less than 30 seconds later, scoring from the left wing to knot the game 10-10 and set up Dowdell’s heroics four minutes later.
“We just took our time and I saw a crease and took it,” Dowdell said of a hard shot he bounced between the goalie’s legs for the game-winner.
Moore followed with the insurance goal and Winter Park was able to maintain possession for most of the final two minutes to close out the game.
Garrett Moore had three goals while Campbell, Dowdell and Roberts had two each.
Lake Mary (18-2) had six goals from Donovan and two from Caden Harshbarger.
“Tough game but we’re not finished yet,” Healey said. “We will tell the guys to go home, get some rest, hydrate and get ready for another tough game tomorrow.”
Winter Park won an invitational state championship in 1999 prior to the FHSAA’s sanctioning of the sport.
LHP girls in final: As expected, Lakeland Highland Prep and American Heritage of Delray Beach cruised to semifinal victories to set the stage for their Class 1A championship game showdown on Saturday at 11 a.m. in Kissimmee.
The undefeated Highlanders (20-0) shut down Ponte Vedra (17-3) for most of the second half and won 18-8.
Olivia Adamson scored 5 goals for LHP, with Ashley Thurston adding four and Kate Hanlon contributing three. Jacqueline Jaskiewicz tallied two and Sarah Pokorny scored once.
American Heritage (15-1), which owes its only loss to Lake Highland, won 20-5 against Naples Community School (21-2).
This story was first published at OrlandoSentinel.com. Varsity Content Editor Buddy Collings contributed to this report. He can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.
