High School girls lacrosse: Buchholz puts culture on full display in 16-6 win over Santa Fe

Tuesday evening brought a change of scenery for the Buchholz's girls' lacrosse team as it hosted the Santa Fe Raiders at the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County.

Generally, the Bobcats play their home games at Citizens Field or Buchholz High School's Jessie B. Heard Field. However, neither was available Tuesday night as Citizens Field was being used by other inner-Gainesville teams and Jessie B. Heard Field is undergoing improvements.

"Today we lined the fields to get it ready for game play," Buchholz girls' lacrosse head coach Marissa Higgins said as she gestured to which pickup truck her players needed to carry the goals to after the game.

However, the atypical field didn't have much of an impact against the Bobcats as they stormed to a 16-6 win over the Raiders, snapping a two-game losing streak and improving to 5-6 on the season.

And from start to finish, Buchholz's win on Tuesday exemplified the program the Bobcats are building.

Havanna Vinson nets six goals in Bobcats' win

Buchholz junior Havanna Vinson didn't waste much time before she put her team out front.

After 2 1/2 minutes of game play, Vinson found the back of the net. Her shot got past junior goalkeeper Meagan Wisener, who was forced to be on her toes all night as the Bobcats' offense consistently applied pressure.

All Buchholz needed was that first goal to go on a scoring tear.

Just 33 seconds expired between the Bobcats' first and second goal as senior Christine Cama scored the second point of the game, only to be followed by 11 more goals in the first-half, allowing Buchholz to take a 13-3 lead.

And leading the way the entire time was Vinson, who finished with six goals − a career high for the junior.

"She's shown tremendous growth from last year to this year," Higgins said of Vinson. "I can tell that she has really put in the work, which has really led to increased confidence. She feels like in those moments, she can put the team on her back and put the ball in the back of the goal, which is really neat to see."

Also chipping in for the Bobcats was senior Armina Azam (four goals), Cama (three), senior Kayla Scheel (two) and sophomore Gabriella Trimboli (one).

Scoring goals for the Raiders was junior Ava Adams (two), sophomore Grace Miranda (two), senior Katherine Lloyd (one) and senior Emma Maroon (one).

Buchholz seniors Cama, Azam continue to lead by example

The Bobcats have quite the veteran tandem in seniors Christine Cama and Armina Azam.

The pair entered the season as Buchholz's leading returning scorers; Cama tallied 30 goals last season and Azam pitched in 19, good for the second- and fourth-most on the team. Yet, someone unfamiliar with the program might not have guessed that considering the tandem was overshadowed by Vinson's brilliant performance.

But according to Higgins, Cama and Azam don't mind taking the backseat.

"Cama is the person any coach dreams to have on their team. In the games when it's coming down to the final play, she's going to score that goal. In other games when we're making sure everyone gets lots of play time, she's giving other people opportunities to shine," Higgins said.

"But anytime you mention Christine Cama, you have to say Armina Azam as well. The two of them have the best two-man game I think I have seen in Florida lacrosse."

Evidence of Buchholz's culture extends beyond the playing surface

If one were to walk the boundary of the pitch Tuesday night, they'd likely have to dodge a few games of catch as many members of the Bobcats' junior varsity girls' lacrosse team were on-hand during the game, lacrosse stick in hand.

"Last year at tryouts we had 26 girls show up," said Higgins, who played lacrosse at the University of Florida in 2010 before going on to be an assistant coach at Florida Southern. "I decided if I had 24, I would keep JV ... I wanted to keep a JV program so that we could have a feeder system and continue to grow. This year at tryouts we had 52 girls."

In just two seasons as head coach, Higgins has helped Buchholz grow its program tremendously − a feat that shouldn't be understated considering lacrosse isn't the most popular sport in the area.

"I think that's my proudest thing as the coach right now," Higgins said. "I think that's really a testament to the leadership that we have within our program. We have girls that just love being out here. They encourage other girls to come out and we really have a family environment on this team. It's something people want to be a part of."

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Buchholz girls' lacrosse uses big first half to top Santa Fe 16-6