Game of the Week Preview: Lakeville South at Chanhassen

Game of the Week Preview:  Lakeville South at Chanhassen – Friday, April 28 @ 7:00 PM

Rematch of last year’s state title game which Lakeville South won 10-7. 

Both teams lost a lot of talent to graduation, but bring back more than enough firepower.  Let’s start with the defending state champions, Lakeville South.

Of their most notable, they lost 192 points (1st Team All State Brielle Fannin and 2nd Team All State Lauren Sheets)…along with Ms. Goalie winner, Lindsey Wirfs. 

Ouch.

All they bring back is…our preseason Ms. Lacrosse (Emily Moes), 3 2nd Team All Staters (Gabby Bouman, Tori Tschida, and Katie Grubbs)…and a bunch of other players committed to or are working on getting committed to playing in college. 

Yeah…

So Chanhassen…they couldn’t have lost that much…right? 

Wrong.  Remember Hodgins twins (127 points, both at D1 Boston University), along with Bella Detienne and her 70 points? 

Hmmmm…

Luckily, they have 2 D1 commits (Gabby Bjugan and Aly McPartland) and 4 D2 commits (Tatum Nyen, Allie Wedler, Katie Colleran, and Jayden Hahn)!

So…yeah.  They’re the #1 and #2 seeds right now. Does either team have a weakness, you may ask? 

Not really. 

Sure – you can say that goalie is new for South, but their 2025 goalie could have been starting at 90% of the teams since her 8th grade year (Kate Bael).

Chan might not have as much depth past their laundry list of stars…until we remind you that they picked up a freshman who scored 49 points for Chaska as an 8th grader (Zoe Zielinski).

And listen…these are both public high schools.  They lose players to graduation and have new players step up every year…thats how the bit goes.  We aren’t knocking Chan or South, but when asked to grasp for straws, we grasp for straws.

OK – coaching?  Who holds the edge? 

Well…neither over the other.  Both teams have first year head coaches, who bring totally different experiences.  Joel Tornell has coached at South as an assistant forever and knows this squad insanely well.  Carly Goetz is new to Chan, but grew up next door in Chaska and played D1 lacrosse at Virginia Tech.  They’re going to have totally different philosophies.

How about this year…how have they done? 

South is 2-0 after beating Owatonna (22-1) and Eastview/Eagan (22-4).

Chan (2-0) has played two significant opponents, beating Minnetonka 13-9 on opening day and Eden Prairie 14-3 in their second game.  They’ll play Chaska on Thursday in what has to be described as the most trap game of trap games ever…Josie Lakosky and Kennedy Sanders have literally nothing to lose with Chaska and they are scoring in BUNCHES this year…do you think they’ll get some pleasure about popping Chan in the mouth before their big game against South?  Seriously…go look at their stats this year.

Great – you babbled for 420+ words already…who is going to win?

Glad you asked.  We think Chan is going to pull this out by 2 goals…something like 12-10 or 14-12.  They’ve had a week to make adjustments after playing Tonka and EP and have the sour taste of the state championship game in their mouth. HOWEVER, we are VERY afraid of that Chaska game.  The rematch with South has had to be on their minds since the schedules came out…so they should be motivated.

And Lakeville South doesn’t/shouldn’t need anything motivating.  Can’t wait for them to win 17-13 now that we picked Chan.

Man – hope the weather isn’t shitty for this one.