Boys Games of the Week: April 8-April 13
Well… we are finally here. What seems like days, weeks, months pre-season talk, section breakdowns, speculation and #clueless takes. We finally get to see the teams settle things ON the field. Some notes before we get into it:
No pay wall. Last year we experimented with a DTA premium subscription. We had success with it and it proved there is community of lacrosse fans that have a desire for coverage of the sport. THANK YOU to those who subscribed last year - it does not go without extreme gratitude from me and the rest of the DTA team. With that, we decided to remove the pay wall. What? Why? While the subscriptions were a nice revenue generator to help cover some of the costs of running DTA, we felt that having a paywall limited quite a few people from reading. We want the sport to grow. We want more people to care about MN high school lacrosse and subsequently all of the players, parents, coaches, administrators who work tirelessly to provide the experience. We also have a sponsor, Old Southern BBQ, that helped us cover a lot of those costs this season. So, with help from them and the overall mission, it made sense to remove the paywall. If you want to support us financially, please reach out, there are many ways you can help if you feel inclined
DTA coverage will skew to be more team/matchup driven. Players, of course, are part of that and we will talk about players, but our goal is to highlight what is happening from the team side and preview why certain matchups may be interesting to you, the lacrosse fan.
With that, I will be doing more player-driven content via PrepLacrosse.com. I have been writing some pre-season articles there but I am excited to dive more into specific matchups and cover the standout players from games each week. This will be much more player focused. If you are interested in more specific player driven coverage - I will be doing that over there. Note: There is a pay wall for that. I do not have the authority to remove it. I just write for them.
Alright, on to the games!
Thursday, April 11
Farmington @ Chisago Lakes: hey, that’s cool, my team is part of the season kick-off. no pressure! This matchup is two teams that have burst on to the scene of relevance the past 3 seasons and looking to take the next step into “perennial ‘top 10”’ land. Chisago was a state tournament team in ‘21 and ‘23. Farmington a state tourney team in ‘22. Both teams graduated a handful of contributors so we may be looking at a couple reload/rebuild situations.
Northfield @ Eagan: Two teams that always play with pride and bring their best every night. Both teams have some high level players but for me, curious about depth of both of these squads. Over the past few years, Northfield has dominated the Big 9 while Eagan has been a mainstay contender in the SSC, with a state championship back in ‘17. This should be a fast paced, up and down game.
Blake @ Holy Family: Two smaller programs that are building. I think these two teams matchup well and we could see them in the larger conversation in the next few years
St. Cloud @ Mound-Westonka: I love this matchup. Two teams that don’t get a ton of attention but are on the rise. St. Cloud is on my radar for contention in section 8, and M-W, after winning their conference last year is on my radar as a team to watch in section 2. I think this will be a competitive game. Also note, St.Cloud’s logo is straight fire and won our March Madness Logo Bracket - voted on by you, the fans, on instagram. Logo gives the CRUSH the edge here.
Hudson (WI) @ Benilde St. Margaret’s: This is probably the most anticipated opening day game in the MN boys lacrosse community for 2024 (maybe ever?). The Red Knights… powerhouse galore… going against Hudson, last year’s Wisconsin state champs. I am a big fan of Coach Ruggerri at Hudson and I love that he’s bringing his boys right into the Knight’s Lair. BSM is loaded. They know they will get everyone’s best. This is also not an easy game to kick off the year against a championship caliber program that has been playing already for a month. I really applaud Coach Palermo for putting this game on the schedule - could have been an easy one to dodge for many reasons. I think Hudson lost a pretty good group of seniors, so not sure what they have coming up. I hope they make this a regular contest moving forward.
Providence Academy @ Breck: two teams that are on the smaller side. A couple really good players on both sides, curious on what the supporting cast will look like. This one should be fairly even.
Rocori @ Cloquet/Esko/Carlson: Game one for the brand new, Lumberjack Lacrosse program of C/E/C. Also an absolutely crisp logo. If the #Jacks could bottle up the feeling of the first ever lacrosse game together and send me a jar, I'd pay good money. Can’t imagine the excitement of that first game as a group.
Hill-Murray @ The Valley: A common early season battle over the last couple years. This game has notoriously been physical and emotional. Hill Murray is out to prove something this year, The Valley has new coach and some new faces after a really good senior class has moved on - but they were a main stay in the Top 10 last year. I think The Valley has a bit more depth, but Hill Murray may surprise some people this season. This game should be a fun one.
Minnetonka @ Elk River - Zimmerman: ER/Z made some noise last year. Minnetonka is blue blood power 5. ER/Z graduated a decent amount of 2023s. Minnetonka graduated a TON of 2023 - including D1 bound, Ben Schuster. Tonka has a nice young core. I’ll be honest, I am not as sure about the pipeline for ER/Z. I know they have had solid youth teams over the years. Might be a preview of some top teams in a couple years.
Totino - Grace @ Mounds View: TG was a surprise team for us last year. They could score goals and definitely took a jump as a program. They have a dedicated coaching staff and I am curious to see what their pipeline looks like after some big names graduated for them. Mounds View had an insane turnaround last year after a rough ‘22. They seem to be on the rise as well. I think this will be a good game
Blaine @ Robbinsdale Armstrong: Armstrong was probably THE surprise team last year going 12-3. They graduated some contributors but get a few key players back. Sounds like a new coach has taken over as well. Blaine, slowly been rebuilding around coach Alex Johnson. They have a nice young group coming up but have been improving after once being a state tourney mainstay’s. I am really intrigued by this game, I want to say Armstrong might be a little stronger TODAY, but, Blaine may be sneaky this season.
Jefferson @ Shakopee: Probably mot anticipated game 1b on the opening day slate as far general lacrosse fan curiosity is concerned. Shakopee, a year removed from a 4th place state tournament run looking to continue their dominance in the south metro. Jefferson played a tough schedule with a young core last year losing a lot of one/two goal games. With the offense a year older, will they be able to produce a few more goals and flip some of those games in their favor?
Duluth Marshall @ Superior (WI): Duluth Marshall is another team entering their first MSHSL season and will cross the high bridge into superior for another MN/WI matchup. Hopefully these border battles become more regular!
Friday, April 12
Moorhead v Minneapolis: The start of a two game slate for the Spuds on a trip down to the twin cities. I expect this game to be a warm up for their clash with Woodbury on Saturday. I do know that Minneapolis has a nice group of young guys and are led by great coach/human John Hunter, so, maybe they will turn the corner here
Duluth v Big Lake/Princeton: Duluth is my sleeper team this year and a team I think has a chance to win Section 7. They are led by an elite goalie and a couple big time scorers. Depth may still be an issue, but, I expect them to contend for the section at minimum.
Monticello v Buffalo: Normally not a game I would have my eyes on but, the Buffalo coaching staff just flipped over to Monticello this past off-season. Literally they are going to be coaching against a bunch of their former players. I am extremely curious as to what the feelings are in this game. Nonetheless, interesting that this game landed game 1 for both teams.
Superior (WI) v TriMac: Superior heading down to the twin cities to play another team that was a little bit of a surprise dark horse in 2023. TriMac lost some of their big guns, but, they had a banner year for their program in 2023, we will see if that carries over into 2024
St. Thomas Academy v Holy Angels: STA is a team that I am personally curious about. Have been a top tier program over the last 10 years or so and have great athletics in general at the school. They lost a lot of offensive production to graduation. Still pretty elite on the defensive end. Holy angels has been up and down. The past few years have seemed like lean years for them, but, not so long ago had some top talent and were competing for section titles.
Saturday, April 13
Will make a separate post for Saturday with the big East v West Showdown Event!