BOYS Top 20 Preview: #13 White Bear Lake
WBL is an interesting anomaly to me. They haven’t quite been able to get back to their elite status from that 3 year state tourney from 2013-2015, capped off with the state title in 2015. However, they haven’t really been down either. They usually are somewhere in the mix, are good for at least one upset each season but also good for a weird loss too. Overall, the Bears in my mind are still one of the better programs year over year in the state and may have a chance to play spoiler in the section. They played Stillwater tough last year in the section final and hope to break through in 2025
“Tale of the Tape”
*according to LaxNumbers
**according to MN Lax Hub
2024 Record: 9-7
Strength of Schedule: 74.55 (14th in MSHSL)*
Team Offense: Averaged 11 Goals For per game (22nd in MSHSL)**
Graduated Senior Production: 24%
Team Defense: Averaged 7.63 Goals Against per game (26th in MSHSL)**
Graduated Defensive Personnel: Owen Anderson (Defense)
Offense Returning
Ben Lockwood (28/22)
Finn Karni (27/13)
Wyatt Raleigh (25/12)
Charlie Woodcock (23/5)
Gabin Huot (9/8)
Eli LaLonde (7/3)
Defense Returning
Griffin Ziccardi (LSM)
Tanner Olsen (Defense)
Donovan Morris (Defense/LSM)
Adrian Eicher (Defense)
Reid Vickstrom (Starting Goalie)
2025 Schedule
Within the Suburban East conference they will have tough ranked matchups agains: Stillwater (#4), East Ridge (#7), Cretin - Derham Hall (#20) & Woodbury (#12). In addition to those ranked games, Mounds View, Irondale and Roseville have all been up and coming teams as well.
OOC they have Hudson, Mahtomedi & Duluth. They will have one more OOC game added to get to their 13. Mahtomedi was “down” last year but traditionally is one of the better teams in the state. Hudson will be better this year and Duluth has been building year over year. While these are not “ranked” games at the time of writing, they should be strong OOC games for the Bears.
Final Thoughts
White Bear Lake gets nearly their entire team back. They had a handful of 2026 and 2027 players as varsity contributors so it looks like they were a pretty young group that had a decent season. Combine those young guys being a year older athletically and a strong 2025 group, the Bears should have a great chance to be successful in 2025.
They do need to solve the loss of their best offensive player, Preston West. 54 Points a year ago will need to come from other sources this year, but, the good news is that they return their next 6 point producers. They still have a quite a good group of offensive guys who had 30+ points last year so the offense should not have to take a big step back, even though West was a great talent.
Defensively, they have one of the better LSMs in the state in Griffin Ziccardi to anchor the middle of the field and get their starting goalie back, who is only a sophomore. He had a .562 SV% last year as a freshman and I expect him to continue trending up as he gets older and more experience in the cage.
All signs point to WBL being able to build on their season from a year ago and contend in a tough section 4. Stillwater will be a tough out but as mentioned above, they played them tough in the section final last season. And, since they are conference opponents, we will see how the two teams matchup before the playoffs begin.