NOW OR NEVER: Motivated St. Augustine ready to move from 'middle,' contend for title
ST. AUGUSTINE — This is it.
It’s the best season for the senior-led St. Augustine girls lacrosse team to make a deep playoff run and contend for a state title.
Coach Shannon Content and her veteran group amassed a 29-11 record, won two district titles and made it to regionals twice in the last two seasons. St. Augustine has established itself as one of the top programs in St. Johns County.
The Yellow Jackets, however, are always caught in the “middle,” as Content describes it. They are elite enough to beat most teams but struggle against other elite teams. Their 10-3 start tells that story.
They won the games they were supposed to win, Content said. But they lost to 2022 2A state champion Bartram Trail, regional finalist Ponte Vedra and state semifinalist Episcopal School of Jacksonville.
“We didn’t play the entirety of a game,” Content said of the matchups against the Sharks and the Bears. “If we put the three parts of the field together, we’ll be OK.”
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St. Augustine's latest game against Episcopal, the team that defeated them in the regional final game last year, became an instant classic. They came back from a four-goal deficit to tie the game at 11-11 in the final minutes. The Eagles scored late to edge the Yellow Jackets 12-11.
The game, however, showed that St. Augustine is serious about elevating its play the second half of the season. The Yellow Jackets are ready to prove they can win against top-tier teams.
“You can never really count us out,” goalie Alyssa Rosenfeld said. “We can be down by however many points but we’re never going to give up. We’re always going to give it our all and give it our last shot. That’s what really puts us ahead. We never put our heads down.”
St. Augustine has no time to mope because its schedule doesn’t get any easier. In four of its last five games, it plays Fletcher (5-2), Oviedo (9-3), American Heritage (10-1) and Lake Brantley (7-1) — the perfect platforms to make a statement that they’re done with being in the middle.
Ponte Vedra and St. Augustine are in the same district this season, which means the Yellow Jackets will have a chance to redeem its loss.
“We all have to want it really badly,” midfielder Skylar St. John said. “Mentally, we need to tell ourselves, ‘This is our chance to come back.’ We get another shot so we need to take advantage of it.”
The Yellow Jackets have been dominant the last two years at districts and frankly, didn’t meet much resistance. Ponte Vedra’s switch makes their championship defense tougher but not impossible.
It’s about mental adjustments, as St. John noted, and unifying. Their communication on both sides of the field and transition have improved, senior Kendal Weber said.
All season, their mantras have been “Right here, right now,” and “If not now, then when?” Content has always believed in her team and its ability. They’ve just got to believe it, too, she said.
“They just need to pull up their bootstraps and go and do it.” Content said. “They know that this is the time. That they have to make those inroads now.”
This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: High school lacrosse: St. Augustine vies for strong second half
