Minneapolis Outshoots Woodbury/East Ridge in Girls Lacrosse

After averaging nearly 13 goals a game in winning its first four games, the back of the net has been more elusive lately for the / girls lacrosse team.

The Griffins have scored just 12 goals in the last two games—both losses—including a 14-8 decision Friday night at Minneapolis Washburn to a combined Minneapolis team.

Minneapolis senior midfielder Martha Polacek and junior Hannah Hilden-Reid combined for 11 goals to power a fierce offensive attack for the Warriors.

“I think that we played smart, and we settled it down on offense and I thought we did that very well,” said Hilden-Reid.

Woodbury/East Ridge's Blair Fanning and Sophia Bainbridge scored the first two goals of the game before Minneapolis got rolling. The Warriors went on a 9-1 run the rest of the half to take control of the match.

Leading 9-3 at the break, the Warriors extended their advantage to 11-3 on two more goals by Hilden-Reid to open the second half. Woodbury/East Ridge rallied with three straight goals to cut the margin to 11-6, but that was as close as the Griffins could come.

The Warriors were ably assisted defensively by ninth-grade goalie Kayla Wuest.

“I’d say this is definitely our best game,” said Minneapolis Warriors head coach Julie Brandt. “Our goalie made some incredible saves. We played really tight defense and we were able to pick up the ball well. On offense it was clicking, good passes, good clears, good movement all the way down the field.”

Minneapolis is a cooperative of players from Minneapolis Edison, Minneapolis North Community, Minneapolis Patrick Henry, Minneapolis Roosevelt, Minneapolis South, Minneapolis Southwest and Minneapolis Washburn, improved to 3-2 on the season.

Woodbury/East Ridge lost its second straight game after starting the season 4-0, falling to 4-2.

Ari Guanella had two goals to lead the Griffins. Teammates Jackie Hegg, Elizabeth Straub, Katherine Schulte, Fanning, Bainbridge and Michelle Bailey added one goal each.

“We had worked a lot on faceoffs, so I was impressed that we were boxing out on our faceoffs,” said Griffins head coach Kara Midura. “We had a lot of good transitions down the field where we passed back and threw to the other side of the field, switching fields a lot. And we set up our offense, our settled offense, a couple of times, which was great and had some good one-on-ones with the goalie as well.”

Midura praised the play of senior captains Hegg, Bainbridge and Straub as well as eighth-grade goalie Cara Kaufer.

“Jackie just got back on the field after an injury, so she did really well, taking the draws all the time and getting possession” Midura said. “We had awesome interceptions by Sarah Ringgenberg, she’s our defense down there and she did a good job of setting up defense.”

Minneapolis plays at Minnehaha Academy Monday, starting at 6 p.m.

Woodbury/East Ridge hosts Cretin-Derham Hall Monday in a game starting at 6 p.m.