Lakeville South, Eden Prairie reach girls' lacrossse state final

For the first time in eight years — since the MSHSL began sanctioning girls' lacrosse state tournaments — Blake will not be playing for a state championship.

Undefeated Lakeville South, using a mix of speed and versatility to control the flow of play, beat Blake 11-9 to advance to Saturday's title game. The Bears had won the past five state titles and six overall.

"Beating Blake has been our mantra all season," Lakeville South coach Patrick Crandall said. "We're still kind of under-the-radar. This is huge for our program."

Trailing 5-2 midway through the first half, Crandall made a tactical decision that paid huge dividends. He moved high-scoring forward Maddy Canney, who was being face-guarded strongly by Blake defenders, back to defense. The move allowed other Lakeville South players room to move and forced Blake into numerous offsides violations.

The Cougars (18-0) then scored nine of the game's next 10 goals, taking a formidable 11-6 lead with just under eight minutes left in the game.

"They were switching up their attack and that threw a wrench into what we were trying to do," Blake coach Linda Hokr said. "We didn't catch on quickly enough."

With Canney occupied elsewhere, Lake-ville South defender Janna Haeg picked up the slack. In addition to her work holding down Blake's All-Metro forward Annie Lyman, the fleet Haeg consistently outraced Blake defenders in transition and set up the Cougars' potent offense. Haeg finished with a team-high three assists

"We've been telling her all year that she has that kind of talent," Crandall said. "She was the best player on the field today."

Late in the game and seeing its amazing run of championship success in danger of ending, Blake (15-3) put on a spirited rally, cutting the lead to 11-9 with a little more than a minute left.

Eden Prairie 15, Stillwater 14: She had one chance, Sara Woodring thought. A long shot maybe, but what else she could do?

Trailing by one goal with time running out, Eden Prairie's junior forward took a whack at the stick of Stillwater goalkeeper Katie Lottsfeldt, who had just made a terrific save and appeared to be running out the clock.

The ball fell out. Woodring picked it up and tucked it into the goal.

One second remained and Eden Prairie, which had trailed all game, was tied 14-14.

The top-seeded Eagles rode the energy of that dramatic, season-saving goal and pulled out an overtime victory on eighth-grader Brooke Lewis' goal.

"If the goalie had done one thing differently, that wouldn't have happened," Woodring said. "I've scored a last-second game-winner before, but never a goal this meaningful."

Stillwater jumped out to an 8-4 first-half lead and was ahead 14-11 with 1:22 left in the game.

"That shows us that we can't just expect to win every game, but that we have it inside of us to come back when we need to," Lewis said.