Playoff lacrosse: St. Andrew's boys chase excellence again with region final appearance

BOCA RATON – If success was measured by post-game speeches, you'd be hard-pressed to believe St. Andrew's boys lacrosse was headed to the regional final.

And yet, it's the Scots poised to play at 2 p.m. on Saturday after defeating Oxbridge Academy by a 19-4 margin.

Welcome to St. Andrew's (21-1), where head coach Tony Seaman and Co. seek a product somewhere in between excellence and perfection.

Lauded as the top dogs in Palm Beach County, as well as No. 2 in the state and nationally, St. Andrews’ defense played the part on Wednesday.

The Thunderwolves have been held to fewer than five goals twice – and both at the hands of St. Andrew's with mirrored 19-4 score-lines in both games.

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“We practice our defense every day,” Leyton Zorumski said. “We run a special zone called ‘Zebra.’ Our defense operated very well today. We were very quick on call. We knew where the ball was going next. And we function as an elite unit. I’d say we did a good job working cooperatively and cohesively today.”

The same could be said of the midfield, where sophomore Connor and his teammates excelled at getting the ball up the field quickly in transition.

“The midfield looked good,” Connor Byrnes said. “I thought we transitioned the ball really well, ran up and down nice, made good passes, dropped back on ‘D’ quick, and moved the ball around pretty well.”

Ethan Friesel and his fellow faceoff men performed admirably, consistently winning possession during the contest, setting up teammates in the attacking half, where Dylan Faison scored five goals and Nick testa added another three.

The two attackers also contributed seven assists, with Testa’s five leading the Scots in the win.

But though the scoreboard looked representative of a positive result, the competition is only going to get stiffer from here on out.

Multiple players lamented the number of turnovers on sloppy passes, whether it be misfires or short hops.

“Our turnovers, we need to minimize those,” Byrnes said. “Maybe settle the ball to help our defense out a little more, and then just spinning the ball a little better around the perimeter.”

Several players also admitted that their team depth should allow for more rotations – rather than players trying to stay in, even as their endurance waned.

That’s bound to happen when a team like the Scots play as fast as they do.

“We’ve got six or seven sophomore offensive players that are really, really good,” Seaman said. “We can keep putting them out there. I run these guys like greyhounds in practice, so they’re in pretty good shape. The guys that have to be in the best shape because of the way we play defense. They have to rotate and pressure.”

Recognizing that depth and how to manage is, Byrnes says, is going to be key as matchups get tougher.

“Utilizing that as much as we can,” he said. “If you’re tired, get off the field. There’s kids behind you that have more gas than you.”

For the Scots, there’s plenty of gas left in the tank – and plenty of motivation, too.

They’ll face St. John Paul II in the regional final at 2 p.m. on Saturday after the Eagles claimed an upset victory over No. 2 seeded Gulliver Prep.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: St. Andrew's boys lacrosse chases excellence with playoff push