The Palm Beach Central High School boys lacrosse team has concluded its regular season schedule with a 9-4 record. The Broncos are now getting ready for the Florida High School Athletic Association’s Class 2A, District 15 tournament, which starts on Wednesday, April 9.
In all likelihood, the Broncos must win the tournament in order to earn a bid into the Class 2A state tournament. Palm Beach Central is one of six teams in the district and finished in fourth place in the regular season district standings.
According to William Bauer, now in his second year as Palm Beach Central’s head coach of the boys varsity lacrosse team, the Broncos have some talented players on the roster.
“We are very fortunate this year to have several key players in all the right positions,” Bauer said. “They say college coaches recruit goalies and face-off specialists first, and we are strong in both those positions, with team captain Henry Petillo in our goal and Logan Birdsall handling our face-off duties. Logan gets us the ball over 67 percent of the time, and Henry saves it about just as much. Both are great winning percentages.”
In support of Petillo and Birdsall are a pair of talented defenders, Jonathan Campbell and Ethan Lewis.
“Both are strong, big, fast, quick and aggressive defenders that few, if any, in the league can take on successfully,” Bauer said.
Bauer added that his attackers are top-notch, too.
“Offensively, this year we have probably the best overall attack with senior Aiden Emerick, senior Nicholas Tardivo and sophomore Kolston Moradi,” he said. “Because of all the attention both Aiden and Nicolas draw with superior ball handling/playing skills, other teams are always forced to slide to them from Kolston, who is one of our best shooters. He just keeps putting the ball in the back of the net for us.”
While it’s important to have a prolific offense and a staunch defense, it’s also important to have big, strong and fast midfielders playing between the lines.
“Like the offensive line in football, the team can’t win without great middies who can get the ball, possess it and move the ball with alacrity,” Bauer said. “This is really tough to do when gasping for breath, which they do on every run. Consequently, we are lucky to have our other team captain, Sean Lewis, as our true short-stick middy workhorse. He is backed up by juniors Cooper Keydel and Brody Diaz. All three play with great heart, handle between the lines, and contribute on both offense and defense.”
As Bauer reflects on the current regular season, he knows why his squad has been able to produce a winning record.
“Hard work on the basics has been the key to our success,” he said.
If you look at the district standings, the key rivals for Palm Beach Central in the upcoming district tournament are Boca Raton High School and Spanish River High School.
“We lost to both of these teams this year,” Bauer noted. “We had Spanish River early on in the season and lost to the Sharks in double overtime. Boca, however, got us pretty good. For us, it was one of those days where nothing went right.”
Regardless of how Palm Beach Central fares in the upcoming postseason, Bauer is proud of how his team has grown and competed since the moment he took over as coach.
“Our team has improved in every aspect of the game tremendously since my arrival,” Bauer said. “Consequently, our larger margins of victory, year-over-year, seem to show that.”
Bauer is particularly pleased with his team’s stick work.
“If I were to pick one area of the most improvement, I would have to say it is in our stick work,” he said. “We have gone from having difficulty in simply passing and catching to the ability to pick corners when shooting. And this, I attribute to our players’ dedication in putting in the extra work on their own to improve stick handling proficiency. It’s fulfilling for me to see the love of the game grow inside them.”
One of the big moments this season for Palm Beach Central was its 12-5 victory on March 13 against crosstown rival Wellington High School. It had been four years since Palm Beach Central defeated Wellington in lacrosse.
“This 12-5 victory really meant a lot to not only them, but also several players who have already graduated,” Bauer said. “It was a sweet victory for them all.”
