Prior Lake to meet Eden Prairie for girls' lacrosse state title

Breck knew what Prior Lake midfielder Josie Kropp could do. The Mustang coaches scouted her and consulted other coaches on how to defend her. Breck coach Ashley Nelsen also coached her in the summer in club lacrosse.

And still it didn't matter. Kropp scored six goals and won 16 of 22 draws to lead the No. 2-seeded Lakers to a 21-3 rout of Breck in the girls' lacrosse state tournament semifinals Thursday at Chanhassen.

"We spent a lot of time trying to prepare for her, but it just goes to show the kind of unpredictable and dominant player she is," Nelsen said.

No. 3-seeded Breck's inability to read Kropp's intentions kept the Mustangs defense off-balance all game.

"A lot of unforced turnovers," Nelsen said. "Breck helped Prior Lake beat Breck, and you don't like to see that."

Said Prior Lake coach Heather Pierson of Kropp, "You just can't figure out where she's going to go and that's a huge advantage for us."

Yet Kropp is just one piece of a deep and talented Prior Lake team, now 17-1. It's the result, Kropp said, of years of playing together with singular a goal: Winning a state championship.

"Even our bench players came off and put the ball in the net,'' Pierson said. "It was a real team effort."

Eden Prairie 13, Lakeville North 8: The No. 1-seeded Eagles took four-goal leads twice in the first half, only to see the Panthers battle back and cut the lead to two. A goal just before halftime gave Eden Prairie a three-goal lead at the break, but to Eagles coach Judy Baxter, it was time for a little strategy.

Employing slow-down tactic that took valuable time off the clock, Eden Prairie scored five straight goals to start the second half and rode them to victory.

"You know, the clock is your enemy when you can't be assured of winning the draw," she said. "We went through a period where we weren't winning them. We needed to ask if it was worth it to score but give them a chance to go down and get a couple."

Lakeville North coach Laura Childs called Eden Prairie's strategy ''a Judy-stall. It makes you have a mental shift on defense."

Eden Prairie's five straight goals, three of them by forward Brooke Lewis, resulted in a seemingly insurmountable 13-5 lead. Lakeville North tried to rally late, scoring three goals in the final five minutes, but it was clearly too little, too late.

Lewis said the slow-down game was the perfect answer to Lakeville North's gritty effort.

"When you're standing there for minutes on end, defenders lose their edge and fade a little bit," said Lewis, who scored a game-high six goals. "We took time off the clock and didn't give them more opportunities to go back to the draw. It was a really smart tactic."

The Eagles advanced to the championship for the 12th time in 13 seasons. They lost to Apple Valley 11-10 last year.