Florida Lacrosse News on Substack 05/17/2025
Welcome to today's post!
In this issue . . .
Game 4 - Benjamin 10-5 over CSN in the Boys 1A Semifinal
The Substack schedule the next two weeks
Gators, Spartans and Mocs, Oh my! Florida colleges look for glory!
Barron Collier Boys looking for a new HC
Connor Fields NLL MVP, played HS games in Florida!
Acknowledge the volunteers!
*****
#TAFTAG
#LayOffTheRefs
#FloridaRising
#LacrosseFanandDamnProudOfIt
#StopYellingWard
#AcknowledgeFloridaLacrosse
*****
*****
FHSAA Playoff Recap - Game 4
Boys 1A Semifinal - Benjamin vs Community School of Naples
*
Strong Benjamin 2nd Half Leads the Bucs into the Championship Game with the 10-5 Win
*
Benjamin’s path to a second state title took a path through both the city of Naples and its flagship lacrosse program, Community School. Coming into the game, the expectation was that CSN would have to neutralize Dylan Furshman on faceoffs, CSN goalie Michael Slusar needed a big game and CSN would have to score more goals than they had against their top competition this season.
The only one of those three that happened was Slusar having a nice game in goal, saving 12 of the 22 shots on goal (55%) he faced, but Benjamin’s Tatum Little actually had the higher save %, going 9 for 14 (64%). CSN only found the net 5 times, and that wasn’t going to be enough.
Benjamin’s offense has so many options and ways to attack, and that was on display. Ten goals, by NINE DIFFERENT goal scorers. How do you game plan against that? Whack-a-mole. Hold Jack Kelleher to one goal? Alex Ponchock to one goal? Jayden Vega to one goal? CSN Head Coach Keith Lee would have taken that and gone long on his chances. So up stepped Campbell Hogan. Didn’t matter either that Caden Hayes went out after injuring his knee in the game.
Community was led by Cal Wyatt but struggled with supporting him. Their defense held up well; 3 goals in the first half. But the adjustments at halftime were succinct and worked. A 7-1 second half was punctuated by one stat. Benajmin hit the cage with more shots in that half than CSN attempted.
CSN has stepped up their program and I’m sure they are going to be around for a long time, but they ran into a team rarely seen in this state, at this level.