EDEN PRAIRIE — After opening the season with a comfortable victory over Minnetonka, the Stillwater boys lacrosse team did not give any ground in the rematch while cruising past the Skippers 17-3 in the state quarterfinals on Tuesday, June 11 at Eden Prairie High School.
The second-seeded Ponies (15-2), who won the previous game 17-5, advanced to face third-seeded Lakeville North (13-4) in the semifinals on Thursday, June 13 at Chaska High School. The winner will advance to the title game at Eden Prairie on Saturday, June 15 at 6 p.m., with the third-place game slated for Chaska High School at 1 p.m.
Stillwater was sharp from the start, jumping out to a 6-0 lead by early in the opening quarter on goals by five different players. Grant Giese scored two during that stretch and finished with a game-high six goals in all.
Minnetonka eventually broke through for a goal in the second quarter, but the Ponies answered with five straight goals to carry an 11-1 lead into halftime.
“We felt like we matched into them, player for player we won the match-ups,” Stillwater coach Peter Flock said. “We were just winning our match-ups.”
He said the match-up earlier this season didn’t really play into the preparation because plenty has changed in two months, but not the end result.
“It was the first game of the year so we definitely communicated that it almost doesn’t even matter to us anymore,” Flock said. “We kind of focused a little more on ourselves prior to this game because we believed in our match-ups.”
The Ponies started the season with eight straight victories, but it has remained a work in practice all season.
“There was things that even to this point of the season that we need to be more efficient in,” the coach said. “It might be boring and maybe the kids don’t enjoy it as much, but we have to work on those things and we do it daily. We iron out those things and it makes us very dangerous here.”
Robert Appert IV added four goals for the Ponies and Brock Lynskey chipped in with two. Eight different players collected at least one goal for Stillwater, which also tapped into its depth with temperatures creeping up along with the lead.
“It huge today because we knew was going to be getting hotter at the back end of our game, so we kind of wanted to get up early and then using our depth we kind of do damage control from there,” Flock said. “We’re not trying to impress anyone here with numbers, it really was more about just winning, getting out healthy and moving on.
“Grant gave us six goals and we essentially pulled him after that. I don’t think he played much after that.”
Goaltender Casey Mork finished with seven saves while allowing just three goals, but his contributions extended beyond the crease.
“He made the important (saves) and the most important part of this game is that they run a 10-man ride so we need to get the ball out quickly and smartly,” Flock said. “He was a big part of the clearing game because. They’re gonna be manned up on everyone so he made a lot of smart clearing plays, which is a bigger impact and that’s not on the score sheet.”
Jaden Dorgan also made two saves for the Ponies, who built a 15-2 lead midway through the third quarter. Anderson Wagner paced Stillwater with three assists while Luke Geisbauer and Aiden Sargent added two assists apiece.
“We showcased our talent, but we also were the more blue collar team,” Flock said. “We won the ground-ball battles, we won the battles that are less pretty and it showed on the scoreboard.”
This is Stillwater’s third trip to the state tournament and is seeking to improve on its third-place finish in 2022 and the fourth-place showing during its inaugural state appearance in 2021.
The Ponies are seeking to become just the second team from the Suburban East Conference to advance to the state finals of the current MSHSL state tournament. White Bear Lake won the state championship in 2015.
Minnetonka 0 1 2 0 — 3
Stillwater 5 6 4 2 — 17
Goals — Min, Gabe Miller, Liam Cassidy and Laird Cassidy; St, Grant Giese 6, Robert Appert IV 4, Brock Lynskey 2, Easton Abrams, Luke Geisbauer, Anderson Wagner, Wyatt Carroll and Aiden Sargent.
Assists — Min, Liam Cassidy; St, Wagner 3, Geisbauer 2, Sargent 2, Abrams, Lynskey, Zachery Holmen and Keiran Jones.
Saves — Min, Dominic Ciaccio ; St, Casey Mork 7 and Jaden Dorgan 2.
Contact Stuart Groskreutz at stuart.groskreutz@apgecm.com
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