South Florida is the lacrosse capital of the state.
Four Broward and Palm Beach county teams went to Kissimmee this weekend in search of a state championship, and all four are coming back with hardware.
Jupiter and St. Andrew’s won the Class 2A and Class 1A boys lacrosse championships. St. Thomas Aquinas and American Heritage-Delray won the Class 2A and Class 1A girls lacrosse titles, respectively.
Here is a recap of the four title games:
Jupiter 12, Winter Park 8
The Warriors built an early lead that they never surrendered, clinching the program’s second state championship with a win over Winter Park.
Jupiter got out to a 4-1 lead and took a 7-4 lead into halftime. The Wildcats never got ahead of the Warriors, getting outscored in three of the four quarters (and scoring the same amount of goals as Jupiter in the other).
Jupiter had a balanced offense in the win. Trace Hogan and Max Sanderson each scored a team-leading three goals, while Jackson Bashaw and Tyler Douglass added two goals each.
St. Andrew’s 13, Vero Beach St. Edward’s 5
The Scots entered the weekend ranked first in the state and in the nation, according to MaxPreps, and they lived up to that ranking.
St. Andrew’s defense stifled the Pirates, holding them to only two first-half goals. When St. Edward’s made a fourth-quarter comeback attempt, the Scots went on a 6-1 run to seal the game.
St. Andrew’s didn’t rely on any single scorer in the win. Anthony Borodiak, Jack Schulte and Kurt Schwartz had two goals each.
The Scots finish the season with a 16-0 record. The championship is the fifth in program history and first since 2012.
St. Thomas Aquinas 17, Vero Beach 9
Saturday’s Class 2A girls title game matched a perennial powerhouse against a program looking for its first title.
In a rare occurrence, St. Thomas Aquinas was the upstart. The Raiders beat Vero Beach, coming back from a first-half deficit to deny Vero its eighth state title.
St. Thomas went into halftime trailing 6-5, but the Raiders outscored Vero Beach 12-3 in the second half. St. Thomas went on a 10-2 run to start the second half.
Ava Yovino led St. Thomas with six goals. Ava Martino and Peri Reigner added three goals each.
American Heritage-Delray 11, Orlando Lake Highland Prep 9
Lake Highland Prep kept things close, but the Highlanders could not deny American Heritage-Delray its second state championship.
The Stallions kept the Highlanders at bay, outscoring them by one goal in both the first and second half.
Lake Highland Prep cut Heritage’s lead to only one goal with 7:08 to play in the second half, but Stallions sophomore Payton Bezjak gave Heritage some insurance with a goal with 5:48 left to play. The Stallions’ defense kept the Highlanders in check from there, holding onto the narrow lead.
Peyton Wainman led American Heritage with four goals, and freshman Brooke Goldstein had three goals.
