- March 10, 2026
Matanzas middie CJ Schouten rushes downfield. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas boys lacrosse players celebrate their first win of the year, 15-4 over Flagler Palm Coast. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas' Austin Radabaugh (27) and FPC's Brayden Norton-Henry go after a ground ball. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC goalie Aiden Commendatore gets ready to defend a shot on goal. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC's Isaac Baird congratulates Ryan Zapata (34) on scoring a goal. Zapata scored twice in the fourth quarter. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas' Lukas De Freitas (33) runs with the ball away from FPC's Zain Dailey.
FPC's Zain Dailey (right) defends against Lukas De Freitas. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas' Michael Lamonica passes. Photo by Brent Woronoff
FPC defender Jackson Scolaro. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Matanzas midfielder Cooper May. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Vinny Ferrugiaro and CJ Schouten have played on Matanzas High’s lacrosse team for four years. Though the Pirates have not finished with a winning record during that time, they’ve won at least six games in each of the past three seasons.
But this season has not turned out to be the year they had hoped for as seniors. A new head coach hired in the summer was let go in the middle of the season. And the Pirates began the year with six straight losses.
“We’ve worked really hard, and this year’s been pretty rough,” Schouten said.
Assistant coach Dominic Tavolacci, who was playing high school lacrosse himself just three years ago, has stepped in as Matanzas’ interim head coach. On Friday, March 6, Tavolacci won his first game against equally struggling Flagler Palm Coast.
Ferrugiaro, who reached 100 goals in his career on Feb. 26, scored seven goals against FPC as the Pirates defeated the Bulldogs 15-4 at home.
FPC, which graduated 14 seniors last year, fell to 0-7 with the loss to Matanzas and a 10-0 loss to Ocala Forest on March 9.
“We have a lot of new players,” said second-year FPC coach Michael Commendatore. “Generally speaking, nine players that get on the field during a game have never played lacrosse before this year. We only have six seniors and not all of them have a lot of experience, so definitely, we are in a rebuilding year.”
Shouten added three goals in the win and won every faceoff he was in to help the Pirates maintain possession of the ball for most of the game.
“I practice at home every day to get my hands faster, just to win faceoffs and help Vinny get 100-plus goals,” Schouten said. “It’s been a long journey since freshman year.”
Two other Matanzas seniors have been on the team for four years — middie Case Britton and Nick Yacono, who is out for the season with an injury.
While Schouten has only been playing lacrosse since he was a freshman, Ferrugiaro, who grew up in New Jersey, has been playing lacrosse since he was in the fourth grade. Reaching the 100-goal milestone, he said, has been on his mind for a long time.
“I've been working on that for four years,” Ferrugiaro said. “Ever since I was a young kid I always wanted to have 100 career goals.”
Cole Cabrera, Cooper May, Nick Ferrugiaro, Atticus Sims and Michael Lamonica all added a goal for the Pirates against FPC. Tanner Young and Ryan Zapata each scored two second-half goals for the Bulldogs.
The four goals are the most FPC has scored in a game this season. The Bulldogs have more experience on defense, especially at goalie with senior Aiden Commendatore, who will play lacrosse at Savannah College of Art and Design next year. Aiden Commendatore, the coach’s son, has played at FPC since he was a sophomore and has over 500 saves in just two and half seasons.
Tavolacci played lacrosse as a freshman and sophomore at Matanzas and then transferred to FPC where he played as a junior and senior. He went on to play one year at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, before moving back home last year and joining former Matanzas head coach Adam Frys’ staff.
“I didn’t like the cold. I’m definitely a Florida boy,” he said.
Tavolacci said the Pirates are working out some kinks.
“We’re definitely getting there,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of new kids moving around. Our goalie (Liam O’Connor), this is his first year playing goalie.”
For the first time this season, the Pirates had something to celebrate.
“Losing the head coach, that was not planned. That was a culture shock to us,” Vinny Ferrugiaro said. “We're very grateful that Dom stepped in, helped out, to coach us. To get our first win over FPC, that's big for us.”
This is going to help a lot with our team chemistry, because as we saw today, everyone's happy, and they know what it feels like to win. All we knew this season was losing.
— CJ SCHOUTEN, Matanzas midfielder and faceoff specialist
Said Schouten: “This is going to help a lot with our team chemistry, because as we saw today, everyone's happy, and they know what it feels like to win. All we knew this season was losing. So this is going to push us forward and give us some more motivation to get some more wins.”
Both Tavolacci and Michael Commendatore said they would like to return next year. Commendatore stepped in last season after the previous FPC coach left. While his son will be playing in college next year, he feels committed to rebuilding the Bulldogs’ program.
“I definitely want to be here,” Commendatore said. “I'll speak for [assistant] coach [Andrew] Smith, whose son graduated last year, and he's come back. We love being here with the players, and we both really want to work to continue to build a program at FPC and get it to be a strong program from year to year.”
