Huskies claim Big 9 lacrosse title

After seeing its undefeated season come to an end the previous week, the Owatonna girls lacrosse team bounced back in impressive fashion by beating Rochester Mayo 14-2 to clinch the Big 9 Championship. It then followed that up with a 10-4 road win over Rochester John Marshall/Lourdes on Thursday, May 20.
 
The Huskies (9-1) were clear favorites when they faced the John Marshall/Lourdes Rockets (2-7) and scored three early goals, two by Elizabeth Harder and one by Madi Bruessel, but led by just one goal, 3-2, after the first 15 minutes of the game.
 
Although Owatonna has been a high-scoring team most of the season, Head Coach Dani Licht wasn’t surprised that her team didn’t get off to a fast start.
“We were working on a lot of new things during the JM game and although we succeeded on those things in practice it takes a little bit of time for those skills to set in during the game. We are also very much a second half team; it takes is a little bit of time to flip that switch each game,” she said.
The Huskies seemed to flip that switch with about 10 minutes left in the first half.
“At that point in the game, they finally began hitting their stride in the midfield. We had fully processed what their defense was attempting to do and our players began picking it apart,” said Licht.
Junior attacker Audrey Simon’s goal got the scoring surge started and just a couple minutes later Harder added another goal, achieved a first-half hat trick and extended the Huskies’ lead to 5-2.
Then, with just a few minutes left in the first half, freshman attacker Maddie McGinn scored and sophomore midfielder Anni Moran followed with her first goal of the game and just like that Owatonna led 7-2 at halftime.
Since the Huskies held a commanding lead, Licht mentioned that they were able to use the second half as a time to work on their offense.
“There are a few attack plays that we were working on in the second half. A lot of the movements were very new to our players but I see us succeeding in the future by practicing at game speed,” she said.
While it would have been nice if the Huskies could have worked on their offense and cruised to a win, that wasn’t what happened. Instead, the Rockets scored two quick goals and cut their deficit to 7-4 less than four minutes into the second half.
“We were changing up some things on defense in the second half to give more players an opportunity in the game. We’ve got all great defensive players on the field but we did put some different combinations on the field to see how well they worked together. There were a few communication errors that resulted in fouls and an opportunity for JM to score,” Licht said.
Fouls ended up being an issue for the Huskies as they committed six in the second half.
“JM has always been an extremely aggressive team. Things got a little chippy and the officials wanted to keep the game under control and safe,” she said.
Thankfully, for Owatonna, all but one of John Marshall/Lourdes’ penalty shots were either blocked or off target. The only one that went in was one of the Rockets’ first two goals of the second half.
Licht was pleasantly surprised with how the Huskies’ fared against the Rockets’ penalty shots.
“This is actually something we struggle with normally. On Wednesday in practice, we worked on cutting off the shooter to prevent a high percentage,” she said.
Meanwhile, when Owatonna’s offense had the ball, the Huskies did a good job of getting the ball into the crosse [stick] of Anni Moran, the Huskies’ leading goal-scorer. She made the Rockets pay by scoring three goals in the second half. Moran’s third goal gave her a third consecutive hat trick and her fourth goal increased Owatonna’s lead to 10-4.
Licht explained that Moran’s vision is a big reason she’s so good at getting the ball in the back of the net.
“Anni sees the field better than any player we’ve ever had. She finds the open space on the field and drives directly to the net,” she said.
In addition to Moran, she noted that senior attacker Annika Brown, who recorded two assists, stood out for her performance against the Rockets.
“Annika Brown had a great game on against JM, she was great in catching the outlet pass and giving her team good passes to go to net,” she said.
Licht was also impressed with how her midfielders, defenders and goalie Zoe Anderson held John Marshall/Lourdes to just four goals.
“They played an aggressive game and prevented JM/L from getting a good angle on the net,” she said.
Owatonna’s 10-4 win increased its record to 10-1.
The Huskies’ last regular season game was last Tuesday, May 25. They ended the regular season with an 11-2 record.
Owatonna stats: Anni Moran – 4 goals, Audrey Simon – 1 goal and 3 assists, Elizabeth Harder – 3 goals, Madi Bruessel – 1 goal and 1 assist, Maddie McGinn – 1 goal, Annika Brown – 2 assists and Allie Keller – 1 assist. Goalie Zoe Anderson – 9 saves on 13 shots on goal.