FLEMING ISLAND - Hat tricks from Jack Hawley and Kirby Gracia were not enough to overcome a slow start as the Fleming Island’s boys lacrosse team fell to St. Augustine 14-9 on Tuesday night.

The Yellow Jackets, having never beaten Fleming Island, opened the game as if they had something to prove, winning faceoffs, scooping up loose balls, running their offensive schemes at a brisk pace, and pressing on defense. The visitors scored six unanswered goals in the first eight minutes, a gap the Golden Eagles could never quite close.

“They have some serious team speed,” said Fleming Island coach John Hawley. “That and they are the only deep zone-riding team on the clear that we have faced—those were the two things that tricked us up a little bit.”

St. Augustine’ Nick Lawlor and Clay Shaw dominated the game. Lawlor, a 5’3” firebrand, snared nine ground balls and consistently beat the Golden Eagle trying to guard him in man-to-man defense as he drove to the goal, and then flipped a pass to a teammate for an uncontested shot when that teammate’s man moved to stop Lawlor. Lawlor finished with a game-high five assists.

Meanwhile, Shaw permitted St. Augustine to dominate possession time, particularly in the first half. The sophomore won 11 of 17 faceoffs, providing the Yellow Jackets with constant scoring opportunities.

The Golden Eagles did not fold in the face of the deficit, cutting the Yellow Jackets’ lead to 6-4 with a four-goal run covering the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second. Freshman Eric Dobson got the hosts on the board with a drive from the right wing, and assisted on Gracia’s first goal of the night.

“We have been coming back from huge deficits all season,’” said Hawley. “It [the early deficits] is an issue for us. Tonight, we changed our faceoff strategy, and that provided the impetus for the momentum shift.”

But every time the Golden Eagles threatened to tie the game, Lawlor made a play to keep them down. Twice the junior threaded passes through traffic to teammates for easy putaways when the Jackets’ lead had been cut to two, and he fed Josh Peterson for a goal with just seven seconds left before halftime to give St. Augustine a 9-5 lead and a huge confidence boost.

“He is extremely fast, has two good hands, and is a dual threat,” said Hawley of Lawlor.

Gracia opened the third quarter by faking a long-range shot, ducking inside a defender and beating Yellow Jackets goalie Seth Ulrickson to his stick side to make the score 9-6. Hawley capped a three-goal Golden Eagles run that cut St. Augustine’s lead to 11-9 with a laser that Ulrickson was not able to control despite blocking the shot with his stick, and the ball trickled into the net.

But Lawlor started a fast break that teammate Taylor Welu finished with a bounce shot from close range, and the Yellow Jackets, now 9-1, scored the final three goals of the contest.

Senior Demitri Jones started at goaltender for Fleming Island and made eight saves. Dobson, Patrick Schreiber and Cole Stark registered single goals for the Golden Eagles. Schreiber and Dobson each had two assists, while junior middie Jack Surgeoner had three ground balls.

The Golden Eagles, now 3-5, travel to Gainesville Oak Hall Friday night for a non-district game.