Riverview Rams @ St. Stephen’s Falcons

Recap

The Riverview Rams Varsity Boys traveled to Bradenton on Tuesday evening to face-off against the St. Stephen’s Falcons in a non-district matchup.  Going into the game, the Rams program had never lost to St. Stephen’s, going 6-0 since their first matchup in 2016. This matchup would provide further evidence of how high school lacrosse on the west coast of Florida is becoming more well-balanced across multiple teams.  The Rams jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the first quarter, and a 7-5 lead by halftime.  In the third quarter, five goals by the Falcons, including 3 straight goals by Junior Justin Millican, the Falcons were able to take a 10-8 lead into the final quarter. In the 4th quarter, the Rams would retake the lead, with 5 goals.  Going into the final 2 minutes of the game, down by 2 goals, the Falcons got 2 quick goals by Joey Droge and Millican to tie the game, and force an overtime. In overtime, it was the Falcons’ Millican who found the back of the net with the game winner, his fifth goal of the game.

Riverview’s scoring was lead by Senior Kevin Southerland with 7 points (6G/1A). Solano Benitez played a solid game, going 15-for-22 at face-off, scoring 2 goals and snagging 11 groundballs. Benitez’s 11 groundballs tied Riverview’s single-game record, set by 2021 graduate, Tyler Horiuchi on March 6, 2020.  Will Leffler had 12 saves in goal for the Rams.