Same opponent. Same score. Same result.
State champions.
The Bartram Trail girls lacrosse team won just the second state championship by an area program with an 8-7 win over Vero Beach in a classic Class 2A title game on Saturday night in Naples. Izzy Difato scored the winner with just over 1 minute, 20 seconds to play to give Bartram its second title. In the late game, the Ponte Vedra boys came up agonizingly short in a 13-12 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas in the Class 2A game.
Both games were delayed hours by lightning and bad weather.
The Sharks and Aquinas put on a thriller.
Ponte Vedra took a 12-11 lead on a Jack Reed goal with less than two minutes to play before Aquinas broke the Sharks’ hearts.
Chase Grey scored rapid fire goals 11 second apart in the final minute to stun the Sharks and deny them their second title. Ponte Vedra finished its season 19-4.
The Bears (22-3) bled the clock the rest of the way to preserve it. Bartram is ranked No. 4 in the country and Vero Beach fifth, according to MaxPreps.
If the finish sounded familiar, there’s good reason for it.
Bartram beat Vero Beach 8-7 in overtime in 2016 for the first title for the Bears — and the first for a team from the area.
The Bears jumped out to a 5-0 lead and then hung on until the finish in another epic meeting between the two rivals. Bartram beat Steinbrenner 5-4 a night earlier in the semifinals to reach the title game.
The Bears had been state runner-up in 2013 and won the area’s only state crown in 2016. Coach Meghan Jackowiak said earlier this week that her current team reminded her quite a bit of that state championship squad.
Now, the Bears have a title just like that team, too.
Lexi Marcionette scored the game winner to clinch that first state championship for the Bears, netting the winner with 7.3 seconds left in overtime.