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Ocala is a small city south of Gainesville, Fl. There is not a very large supply of lacrosse players. Thankfully there are a few diehard lacrosse players who keep coming back year after year.
Ocala WINS the Division II Championship.
Last year Joe (Lacrosse) Sosnicki, one of the team's captains had said, "Just give us a little more time and we will win the division". Well that time has come. Ocala entered the Div. II playoffs 8-2, there only losses coming from the Miami Makos and the USF Bulls. Fate had something in mind, because Ocala had to play USF in the semifinals and then had to play the Makos for the Championship.
Ocala walked away from their playoff game with a 14-4 win over USF. After losing an overtime game to USF in the regular season, Ocala was looking to end the game early. After the first quarter Ocala had a 6-0 lead, by half time they were winning 10-2. Ocala's defense worked hard all day to give the offense the ball and it really paid off.
The Championship game was a totally different game. Miami had drawn first blood with a wicked shot in the first quarter. That was definitely a wake up call for both teams. The game was extremely hard fought on both sides of the midfield line. Both teams seemed to have great game plans. Miami had almost shut down Ocala's attack, which has the Divisions high scorer (47 points for the year), but Ocala had almost locked out Miami's offense completely except during Ocala's man-down situations.
Neither team could break away with scoring and the game continued to be a one point game the whole day. Miami lead most the first half and every time Ocala would tie it up, they would score another goal to stay ahead. In the second half, Ocala scored a couple of goals in a row to finally take the lead. From that point, Miami had to keep up with Ocala. With under two minutes in the game, Miami turned the ball over twice in Ocala's defensive end helping run out the clock. Marshall White (Div. II MVP), Ocala's goalie made a quick save and started to clear the ball. All the D-men (Mike Provencher, Scott Vandiver and Harold Stonitsch) touched the ball clearing as time ran out on the Makos.
Ocala WON the game 8-7. Scoring for Ocala was Midfielder Rich Costello (4 goals), Attackman Joe Lacrosse Sosnicki with (2 goals/1 assist), Attackman Mike Belford with (1 goal/2 assists) and Midfielder Steve Belford with (1 goal/1 assist). Special recognition goes out the the Team MVP, Richie Zap Zappia for his domination of faceoffs, which gave Ocala it's greatest advantage.
Ocala finished the season 10-2, it was the best they have played in their 17 years in the Florida Lacrosse League. A special thanks goes out to all the players, families and fans who have help the team over the years.
NOW WE HAVE TO CONTINUE TO HAVE FUN AND DEFEND OUR TITLE.
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