Stillwater Puts Scare Into Eden Prairie Before Falling

In their first appearance at Minnesota State High School League girls lacrosse state tournament, the Stillwater Area Ponies weren’t expected to do much.

And for a half they didn’t.

But shortly after the break, the Ponies decided they didn’t want to go home quietly. Stillwater roared back from a 10-2 deficit with an amazing six straight goals against No. 2 seeded Eden Prairie. Eden Prairie eventually regained its poise and won the semifinal battle 14-10, but Stillwater more or less won the war.

“It was really a team effort,” said Star senior midfielder Sammi Reiter who scored five goals in the game. “Our game plan basically was to never give up and give it our all.

“Honestly I think a fire just started burning in us,” Reiter added. “We knew we could do it if we put our hearts to it. And even though we might not have won I think we did great.”

Eden Prairie (15-1) will play The Blake School (15-0) for the state championship at 2 p.m., Friday. It’s the fifth straight title matchup for these two Minnesota high school lacrosse heavyweights.

Stillwater (14-3) will meet White Bear Lake (14-3) for third place in a game starting at 4 p.m. Friday.

“Our girls are in great shape and they don’t give up,” said Stillwater Area head coach Rick Reidt. “I think they were a little nervous in the first half. We had a couple of goals pulled back that could have been goals, but they are a very poised and mature team. This is only our fourth year as a team and I think all their hard work has paid off.”

Top-ranked Blake sank White Bear Lake in the other semifinal, winning 16-2.

That was what the final score of the Stillwater-Eden Prairie matchup was looking like for the first half and start of the second. The Eagles dominated the opening 25 minutes, leading 9-2 at the half and then 10-2 with 22:16 to play in the second.

Stillwater was simply outplayed in the first half. And when the Ponies did manage to do something right, it somehow went wrong. Reiter had two straight goals taken away by an infraction, and then drew a yellow card penalty herself after the second incident. It was a frustrating half for the Ponies.

But Stillwater righted itself in the second half to play inspired lacrosse. The Ponies, led by Reiter, were simply not to be denied. Stillwater scored six goals in five minutes – including three straight by Rider, to close to within 10-8 with 15:09 to play.

Eden Prairie finally stopped the bleeding with three straight goals of their own, two of which were by Anna Johnson to regain a 13-8 lead with 7:40 to play.

Stillwater pushed across two more goals in the final minutes, but couldn’t regain their earlier dominance of the second half.

“This team has never given up,” said Reidt. “In the section championship game we were down almost the whole first half, caught up and we’ve done it a couple times this year. They’re a very mature group of girls.”

Reiter finished with five goals. Teammates Hannah Dickman, Dana Almquist, Emily Gould, Emma Wiessner and Maggie Corman had one goal each.

“It was easily one of our best games,” said Gould, a senior midfielder. “It was the hardest we’ve worked. We clearly wanted it. We’ve played hard every game, that’s always our goal, to just play our best and give our best effort. And I think that as a team working together and making sure we were really supportive of each other and worked hard we did that tonight.”

Eden Prairie junior midfielder Christine Easton’s six goals was just one shy of tying the tournament record.

Stillwater Area          2          8          --          10

Eden Prairie              9          5          --          14