BRADENTON — Having achieved its first goal of winning a regional title, the Manatee High boys lacrosse team is setting its sight on the next target: The FHSAA Class 2A Boys Lacrosse State Championship.
The No. 2-seeded Hurricanes (20-2) will face second-seed St. Thomas Aquinas (16-4) in the state semifinals at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex in Naples on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 5 p.m. The winner will face the No. 1 seed Ponte Vedra (19-2) and No. 4 seed Winter Park (20-1) winner in the title game on Saturday.
Manatee, led by first-year head coach Derek Wagner, is coming into the Final Four after defeating No. 8 seed Horizon 22-1, No. 5 seed Newsome 13-7, and No. 3-seed Plant 12-5 to win the Region 2A-3 crown.
“It feels good to move on, but now the focus is going to be playing Manatee Ball,” Wagner said. “Nothing more, nothing less. We’re just going to go out there and show them how we do it on the West Coast and introduce them to a little bit of Manatee lacrosse. Teams can be confident in what they do, but teams have no idea about our speed and physicalness, so we’ll see if we can shake things up a bit down there.”
The Hurricanes are on a 13-game winning streak dating back to March 13. They are ranked No. 8 in Florida and No. 12 in the nation according to MaxPreps.
Leading the Hurricanes offensively are sophomore Easton Miller (62 goals and 15 assists), juniors Dutch Anderson (56 goals and 22 assists) and Gabe Lahman (40 goals and 12 assists), and senior Devon McGonigle (34 goals and 20 assists).
Defensively over the last 13 games, the Hurricanes have held opponents to an average five goals a game, thanks to sophomore Cooper Kolbe in net and seniors Tommy Baugher and Andrew Desermia, and sophomore Rob Tua’one backing him up.
St. Thomas Aquinas is coming off of winning their regional after blowing out No. 7-seeded Gulf Coast (17-0) and No. 3-seed Columbus (16-3) before defeating No. 1-seed Jupiter 13-8 in the final. The Raiders are currently on an eight-game winning streak and ranked No. 3 in the state and the nation according to MaxPreps.
Seniors James Finch (58 goals and 49 assists) and Diego Salazar (55 goals and 15 assists) are the leading scorers for the Raiders, while senior Luciano Chiabra in net has 117 saves and allowed 75 goals (3.9 goals allowed per game).
IF YOU GO
What: Class 2A Boys Lacrosse semifinal, Manatee vs. St. Thomas Aquinas
Where: Paradise Coast Sports Complex, Naples
When: 5 p.m., Thursday, May 7
Watch on NFHS Network: Click the links to watch Manatee vs. St. Thomas Aquinas
Tickets: $13.00 per day general admission with advance purchase and $16.00 the day of via GoFan
Parking: Included in ticket
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee boys lacrosse team sets sight on winning Class 2A state title
Reporting by Patrick Clines, Special to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
