Benilde-St. Margaret's Looks To Make Another Run at State Lacrosse Title

Despite the loss of several key athletes, many lacrosse experts are picking to repeat as state champions this spring.

Led  by players such as Sean O’Toole (now at Lafayette College), Bailey Dodds (Sacred Heart University) and Ryan Butts (University of Minnesota-Duluth), the Red Knights stormed through the 2010 season, going 16-1 and winning the state title with a 7-3 victory over Totino Grave.

It was the second state championship in four seasons for the Red Knights. In the process, the Red Knights broke their own state tournament record of fewest goals allowed in the tournament by giving up just seven goals (the previous mark was 11). BSM is the only Minnesota boys lacrosse team with two state crowns.

That’s a powerful legacy to live up to, but Benilde-St. Margaret’s may have the horses to make another strong run this spring.

“We’ve got the same expectations as we did last year,” said BSM head coach Colin Mulcahy. “We absolutely lost two really good guys. But we replaced them with a few more. We always hold pretty high standards here, so we expect to be back there.”

Senior midfielder Taylor Topousis, senior defenseman Zach Silvestri and junior goaltender Thomas Gilligan will be some of the leaders for the Red Knights.

Rather then relying on one or two key players, however, a key to the success of the Red Knights is going to be team depth.

“Absolutely our depth is going to be our strength,” Mulcahy said. “Our weakness is going to be the experience level of the guys that we replaced from last year. They obviously didn’t have as much playing time with those two guys in the field, so we’re placing them with a couple young guys, but I think they’ll do just fine.”

Topousis agreed with his coach's analysis.

“The strength of this year’s team is definitely the depth,” the senior said. “Really in all areas we have good players. The defense especially is solid—we bring back almost all of our starters and our goalie.”

Offensively, the Red Knights should be led by Christian Horn, Will Hoesley and Jack Tucker.

“All three will be seeing some pretty substantial playing time and will produce a lot for us,” Mulcahy said. “At the midfield we’ll get a lot out of Christian Rekow, Taylor Topousis, Peter Schubloom and Simon Gondeck, as well as a few other guys.

“Defensively we’re going to led by Thomas Gilligan in goal who came through  pretty big last year  as a sophomore, and he’s got a lot more experience coming in as a junior,” the coach added. “We expect some special things out of him this year.”

Gilligan allowed just 46 goals in 10 regular season games last season and was named to the 2010 state boys lacrosse all-tournament team, along with teammates Butts, Dodds and Charlie Gondeck.

Despite BSM's solid lineup, teams such as Eden Prairie, Blake, Minnetonka and Wayzata should also be challengers for the state crown.

“Any one of those five teams could beat another team,” Mulcahy said. “There’s a lot of parity in the league this year, which makes it a lot of fun.”

The Red Knights will meet most of the top contenders in the regular season, playing Eden Prairie April 25, Blake May 3, Wayzata May 12 and Minnetonka May 14.

“We definitely have the talent and the depth,” Schubloom said. “Last year was the seniors' turn and this year it's our turn.”

Benilde-St. Margaret’s opens the season at home Thursday against a good Burnsville team in a game starting at 7 p.m.