Park girls lacrosse: Wolfpack upsets Rosemount

Just 13 seconds into its Section 3 quarterfinal game against fourth-seeded Rosemount, the Park girls lacrosse took a 1-0 lead. The Wolfpack never looked back.

Park, the fifth seed in Section 3, beat Rosemount 12-8 in Rosemount on Wednesday, May 23.

Park leading scorer Allie Thalhuber buried an eight-meter free shot 13 seconds into the game to give the Wolfpack a 1-0 lead. Park built a 9-4 lead at the half, then opened up a 12-4 lead in the second half en route to the win.

“We may have scored our fastest goal to start a game,” Park head coach Scott Leonard said.

The Wolfpack improved to 8-5 overall with the lopsided victory.

“We controlled the ball probably 70 percent of the time in the first half,” Leonard said.

In the win, Park’s swarming defense and senior goaltender Allie Morse held Rosemount to its lowest goal-total of the year. Sophomore Emma Waller was assigned the task of stopping the third-leading scorer in the state, Maddie Johnson, who had 67 goals in 13 regular season games. Johnson had only one goal against the Wolfpack.

“Emma frustrated her all night with her pressure,” Leonard said.

Offensively, Park senior Karisa Land led the way with five goals and one assist, while Thalhuber scored four goals and added one assist. Also, sophomore Maddie Nelson had a goal and two assists bringing her assist total to 16 on the season, a Wolfpack record, according to Leonard. In addition, Katie Bresnahan and Ann Marie Lane each scored one goal and Bailey Aasen had an assist.

Park traveled Lakeville North on Tuesday, May 29, after the Bulletin went to press to take on the top-seeded Lakeville North Panthers, which are 11-2 overall and ranked third in the state.

“It will be our biggest challenge all season,” Leonard said.

An upset of Lakeville North would pit Park against either second-seeded Apple Valley or third-seeded Bloomington Jefferson.

Since its inception into the Minnesota State High School League three years ago, the girls lacrosse programs in District 833 operated as a cooperative between Park and Woodbury. However, the addition of East Ridge called for a re-examination of the situation.

In a cooperative with Woodbury, the Park-Woodbury Royal Pack finished third in the state in 2009 after reaching state as a seventh seed. However, the teams split for the 2010 season and Park hasn’t been to the state tournament since.

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