OAK PARK HEIGHTS — The reigning Suburban East Conference champion Stillwater boys lacrosse team made a strong showing in this year’s league opener while dispatching Roseville 14-4 on Wednesday, April 17 at Stillwater Area High School.
It was the 11th consecutive SEC victory for the Ponies (1-0 SEC, 2-0), who are ranked No. 4 in the state coaches poll.
Senior Grant Giese supplied four goals to pace Stillwater, which also received three goals and one assist from junior Luke Geisbauer.
The Ponies opened up a 7-2 halftime lead and pulled did not look back. Junior Anderson Wagner added two goals and three assists.
“We’re spreading out the scoring and we have a very strong team this year,” Ponies coach Peter Flock said.
Senior Nick Hornbuckle won 10 of 14 face-offs to help Stillwater control the ball much of the night.
Sophomore Casey Mork finished with seven saves for the Ponies.
“Three of their four goals were on extra-man opportunities, so he had a good game,” Flock said.
Stillwater travels to Irondale for a conference game on Friday, April 19 and then hosts fifth-ranked Chanhassen in a nonconference game on Monday, April 22.
“We have tougher one against Irondale and then we really get into the meat of our schedule where we don’t have an easy test for a while,” Flock said. “We’ll just keep moving forward.”
Roseville 4
Stillwater 14
Goals — St, Grant Giese 4, Luke Geisbauer 3 and Anderson Wagner 2.
Assists — St, Wagner 3 and Geisbauer 1.
Saves — St, Casey Mork 7.
Stillwater 17, Tonka 5
At White Bear Lake, the Ponies made the effort plays and that paved the way for a convincing 17-5 nonconference victory over Minnetonka in the East vs. West Showdown on Saturday, April 13 at White Bear Lake High School.
Stillwater scored four straight in the opening quarter and extended the lead to 8-1 by halftime. It was the second game of the season for the Skippers (1-1), who blitzed Elk River/Zimmerman 24-2 just two days earlier.
“They did graduate a bit last year,” Ponies coach Peter Flock said. “It’s not a rebuilding year, but a newer roster for them and they have a massive youth program and I think you’ll probably see them stringing some good wins together.”
Brock Lynskey and Anderson Wagner each delivered four goals for the Ponies, who featured nine players with at least one goal. Grant Giese and Bobby Appert each chipped in with two goals. Wagner also led the Ponies with two assists.
“It was a lot of spread-out scoring for us,” Flock said. “We know we’re a very talented team so where we are really focused on these kids is effort. The effort stats led to us having a possession percentage around 55 percent and all that put together led to us having the ball a lot more than them because we were beating them in the gritty, hustle-type areas.”
Stillwater scooped up 34 ground balls, compared to just 21 for the Skippers, and the Ponies also made it difficult for Minnetonka to clear the ball.
“They were doing all the effort things we asked them to do,” Flock said. “Sometimes with a talented team that can be the hardest thing to do, but because they did that we were sharing the ball and winning those types of plays. We learned that hey, this is kind of the expectation going forward and that type of effort from here on out.”
Casey Mork finished with 12 saves for the Ponies.
Minnetonka 0 1 4 0 — 5
Stillwater 4 4 5 4 — 17
Goals — Min, ; St, Brock Lynskey 4, Anderson Wagner 4, Grant Giese 2, Bobby Appert 2, Zach Holmen, Aiden Sargent, Nicholas Hornbuckle, Isaac Johnston and Luke Giesbauer.
Assists — Min, ; St, Wagner 2, Giese, Appert, Sargent, Easton Abrams and Keiran Jones.
Saves — Min, ; St, Casey Mork 12.
Contact Stuart Groskreutz at stuart.groskreutz@apgecm.com
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