The Big Lake girls lacrosse team saw their season come to an end in the first round of playoffs Monday. Following is a re-cap of their final matches including their section matchup against Becker.
The Hornets finished the season with a 5-9 record.
Mound Westonka 8, Big Lake 6
May 23, Big Lake hosted Mound Westonka and lost by two goals in a co-op game with Princeton. The beginning of the game was pretty tight with no score until the 19 minute mark of the first half when a Mound player found the back of the net. They would get another goal a few minutes after, but the Hornets battled back with a goal made by Princeton’s own Sloane Griesert bringing the score to 2-1.
A beautiful passing play up the field produced a goal from another home grown Princeton player, Jenna Bumgarner, and was assisted by Big Lake’s Autumn Grunewald. The Hornets would gain another goal before the halftime at the 24 second mark with a fantastic passing play by senior defender Madison Farnsworth made to Amelia Gardner making it 3-2 for the home team.
“During the halftime we discussed how we could maintain our defensive end and also generate more offensive chances,” said Head Coach Lindsey Hartfiel.
Big Lake would get three more goals in the second made by Ella Beach, Gardner and Greisert.
Mound pushed back, and eventually surpassed the Hornets on their way to a two-goal win.
“I think this game got away from us early in the second, but we never quit and hung in there,” said Hartfiel. “Mound was a very physical opponent, and may have gotten us away from how we like to play our game.”
Chisago Lakes 15, Big Lake 1
Chisago Lakes came to town an May 25th and cruised to an easy win over the Hornets. Big Lake held Chisago Lakes to only four goals until the closing few minutes of the first half when Chisago called a timeout due to their frustration. Unfortunately for Big Lake, Chisago Lake’s frustration led to another five goals before the half wrapped up with the Hornets down 9-0.
“We tried to adjust some of our tactics to try and slow them down further,” said Hartfiel. The tactics didn’t work as CL tallied six more goals in the second half to lead to a romp.
Big Lake’s lone goal came from Junior Amelia Gardner.
“Though this wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for, I was proud of the way our girls played and finished the game,” said Hartfiel. “I believe we will continue to improve each season against Chisago Lakes.”
Becker 16, Big Lake 3
Big Lake’s section opponent Monday at home was a team the Hornets were certainly familiar with. They played the Bulldogs twice this season and in the two team’s first meeting it took triple OT to determine the winner (Becker 9, Big Lake 8.), In the second regular season game, Big Lake came out the winner with a one goal differential at 7-6.
“We knew that Becker would be a tough and evenly matched team for our section matchup,” said Hartfiel.
In the first few minutes Becker had taken the lead, but was quickly answered with a goal by Big Lake Junior Amelia Gardner (assisted by Freshman Sloane Griesert) to tie the game at 1-1.
Becker would go up by two goals making it a 3-1 lead, but that was answered again by Gardner and Griesert to make it 3-2. Little did they know, their magic would disappear as they struggled to slow Becker who ran away with the game halfway into the first half and were up 13-2 at the horn.
“We tried our best to decrease Becker’s scoring chances by moving a couple players around, which did slow the scoring though it was too little too late,” said Hartfiel.
Big Lake’s final goal was made by Gardner to complete the hat trick for the evening.
“This was a tough way to end such a positive season,” said Big Lake’s head coach. “These girls have improved their skills and have found ways to win this season — just to come up short when we needed it. I can’t say enough how proud I am of all our players this season from the returning seniors to the newly added underclassman.”
Hartfiel says the coaches and players will certainly miss their senior class, both in their skills and leadership.
“We will graduate six senior players this season including Alynna Acosta, Ana Baxter, Ella Beach, Autumn Grunewald, Madison Farnsworth, and Jade Sager,” she said. “We also graduated two senior managers Jaycie Bergherr and Ryesha Lester. We’d like to wish them all the best in their future plans and future adventures. Thank you all for an outstanding season!”
