St. Thomas Aquinas boys earn shot at back-to-back state lacrosse championships
The names and faces for the St. Thomas Aquinas boy’s lacrosse may have changed, but the expectation has not.
Sometimes rotating six freshmen in the fold after graduating its eight leading scorers from last season, the Raiders went back-and-forth with Winter Park early, but pulled away in the second half with a convincing 15-6 win in the Class 2A state semifinals.
“Like Kobe (Bryant) said, job’s not finished,” St. Thomas sophomore Benjamin Kupstas said. “We’ve got to go in tomorrow, watch the film. Everyone’s got a special role on this team, and everyone needs to fulfill that if we want to come out on top.”
The St. Thomas defense clamped down when they needed to, allowing just two goals over the final 24:16 of game action. Two of Winter Park’s goals were a man up, which gave them a 3-1 lead early in the first quarter.
The face-off play of Chris Testa was critical for the Raiders, as he clipped around 90 percent on the afternoon in the circle on 22 attempts. Testa also scored in the first quarter after winning a faceoff to snap an Aquinas scoring drought that lasted for just under four minutes.
“He’s been this way all year,” Crowley said of the senior. “We play everybody: St. Andrew’s, Jupiter, everybody. We were up in New York, and I’ve never seen the kid under 70 percent. I think under 70 was his worst outing. He was around 90 (percent) today. You’ve got to give him credit.
“Winter Park’s a good team. They’re very athletic as well, and we were able to control the faceoff, 90 percent of it. That comes down to time of possession, because their offensive guys are fantastic. The idea was to keep it out of their hands.”
The third quarter was a near flawless one for the defending champions in Class 2A, as Kupstas led an offensive barrage that outscored the Wildcats 5-0 in the third quarter. Three of Kupstas’ five goals were in the third, with Jack Lancelot and James Finch adding one apiece in the quarter.
Finch eclipsed 50 goals on the season Thursday, giving Aquinas its first 50-plus goal scorer since Brock Gonzalez netted 88 in 2019.
“I felt like we were just better trained,” Kupstas said. “We weren’t tired. Conditioning, all that stuff, we obviously looked a lot more energized out there. It felt that way. We played to our card, just kept running throughout the whole thing, and came away with a big team win.”
St. Thomas (17-3) will take on top-seeded Lake Mary (23-0) for a shot at going back-to-back in Class 2A. Aquinas is 3-2 all-time in state championship contests, all under Crowley.
Crowley expects that his team will be ready for the moment on Saturday against a team aiming to cap off a perfect season, because of the success around them at their own school.
“I think about how a lot of them are going to react, because many of them are freshmen,” Crowley said of Saturday’s state title game. “But there’s another side of it because of our football program. When people come to school here, in the back of their minds, they expect this.
“As a coach, the locker rooms are very competitive. I think we’ve won five titles this year. Everybody comes here with the expectation of performing, which translates into working hard.”