Despite losing a regular-season match to White Bear Lake and finishing with a worse record than the Bears, the Roseville Area High School girls lacrosse received a higher seed and a home playoff game. The Raiders made the most of the good fortune last week.
Fourth-seeded Roseville hosted fifth-seeded White Bear Lake in the Section 5 quarterfinals on May 29 and rolled to a 15-4 victory.
Four weeks earlier, the Bears edged Roseville 6-4 to drop the Raiders to 0-4 but things were much different the second time around. Roseville peppered the Bears with 25 shots, 21 of which were on goal.
Mackenzie Moriarty and Danielle Lucker led the offensive onslaught with four goals apiece while Laura Hill added two. The Raiders got single tallies from Ellen Carter, Claire Krelitz, Allyson Reilly, Hannah Distad and Ciara Bond. Megan Reilly, Carter and Ciara Colvard added assists.
Roseville goalie Sophie Bloss stopped 13 of the 17 shots she faced to pick up the victory in net.
The victory sent Roseville to the semifinals, which were played Monday past the deadline for this edition of the Review, against top-seeded and ninth-ranked Robbinsdale Armstong. The Falcons had an even easier first-round contest as they blanked eighth-seeded Columbia Heights 18-0.
On the other side of the bracket, second-seeded Irondale topped Robbinsdale Cooper 13-1 and third-seeded Mounds View edged sixth-seeded Totino-Grace 14-10 in the quarterfinals. Irondale hosted Mounds View in the semifinals on Monday.
The two semifinal winners meet for the section championship on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Osseo High School.
Boys
Roseville’s boys lacrosse team was also the fourth seed in its section tournament and hosted fifth-seeded Totino-Grace on May 30. In a hard-fought game dominated by defense and goaltending, the Eagles sprung the upset, winning 4-3 to advance.
Goals were difficult to come by as only Totino-Grace managed to score in the first half. The Eagles got goals four minutes apart in the second quarter to take a 2-0 lead into halftime.
Totino-Grace added to that lead early in the third quarter before Roseville finally got on the board. Three minutes into the third, Riley Sanocki broke through for the Raiders and scored off of an assist from Drew Liberkowski.
About five minutes later, Van Olesen made it a one-goal game when he beat Totino-Grace goalie Jack Burn.
Roseville appeared to tie it up 19 seconds later but Mathew Anderson’s apparent goal was waived off on a crease violation.
Totino-Grace regained a two-goal lead with a tally 15 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Roseville peppered Burn with five shots on goal in the fourth quarter without success before Liberkowski finally got one past him with 21.7 seconds left in the game. Totino-Grace was whistled for a violation on the ensuing faceoff, giving the ball to Roseville with a chance to tie. But Burn was up to the task on one final shot by the Raiders to preserve the victory.
Burn finished with 15 saves on 18 shots while his Roseville counterpart Jamison Boggio came up with 11 saves on Totino’ 15 shots.
With the victory, Totino-Grace advanced to the semifinals, which were held past the deadline for this edition of the Review, against top-seeded and 11th-ranked White Bear Lake. The Bears destroyed eighth-seeded Irondale 24-0 in the quarterfinals. The other semifinal on Monday pitted third-seeded Robbinsdale Armstrong against second-seeded Mounds View. Armstrong beat Osseo 13-6 and Mounds View beat Providence Academy 19-2 in the quarterfinals.
The two semifinal winners meet for the section championship on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Park Center High School.
Section 5 girls lacrosse playoffs
Quarterfinals
Match 1 — Robbinsdale Armstrong 18, Columbia Heights 0
Match 2 — Roseville 15, White Bear Lake 4
Match 3 — Mounds View 14, Totino-Grace 10
Match 4 — Irondale 13, Robbinsdale Cooper 1
Semifinals, June 2
Match 5 — Roseville at Robbinsdale Armstrong, 5 p.m.
Match 6 — Mounds View at Irondale, 2:30 p.m.
Championship match, June 4, 7 p.m. at Osseo High School
Match 7 — Match 5 winner vs. Match 6 winner
Section 5 boys lacrosse playoffs
Play-in round
Match 1 — Irondale 10, Robbinsdale Cooper 4
Quarterfinals
Match 2 — White Bear Lake 24, Irondale 0
Match 3 — Totino-Grace 4, Roseville 3
Match 4 — Robbinsdale Armstrong 13, Osseo 6
Match 5 — Mounds View 19, Providence Academy 2
Semifinals, June 2
Match 6 — Totino-Grace at White Bear Lake, 7 p.m.
Match 7 — Robbinsdale Armstrong at Mounds View, 2:30 p.m.
Championship match, June 4, 7 p.m. at Park Center High School
Match 8 — Match 6 winner vs. Match 7 winner