Girls lacrosse: Stillwater and undefeated Prior Lake reach the state final

Stillwater had unfinished business. And this time, the Ponies finished the job.

After giving up a four-goal lead and watching Park of Cottage Grove erase a deficit late in the second half, Stillwater got a game-winner from senior Rayna Malmberg with 10 seconds left, lifting the No. 3 seed Ponies to an 11-10 victory over No. 2 Park in the girls lacrosse state semifinals Thursday at Eden Prairie High School.

The win sends Stillwater (15-2) to the state championship game against undefeated Prior Lake on Saturday. Park (17-1), the Suburban East champion, hadn’t lost this season and had beaten the Ponies 7-6.

“I’ve never been in this spot, but these girls earned it,” Stillwater head coach Carly Fedorowski said.

Junior Jillian Maddox scored in the opening minutes, assisted by junior Grace Young, then added another before the nine-minute mark to give the Ponies a 2-0 lead. Malmberg followed with her 46th goal of the season, again with an assist from Young, her 34th, and senior Maddie Richert made it 3-0 shortly after.

Young and Richert added to the lead, making it 6-0 by the time Park called a timeout with 5:20 left in the half. Sophomore goalie Jacky Richert, who entered the tournament with a 61.4 save percentage and a 4.0 goals-against average, made four impressive first-half saves to keep the Wolfpack at bay.

Park broke the shutout but remained down 7-2 at halftime.

After the break, Park stormed back.

Goals from Madi Brinkman, Josie Leonard and Kyra Stofer cut the lead to one. Then, with 7:08 remaining in the game, Brinkman tied the game 10-10, completing a four-goal Wolfpack run.

After a crucial Richert save inside two minutes, Fedorowski called timeout with 17 seconds left. Seven seconds later, Maddie Richert found Malmberg for the winner.

“We knew they weren’t going to give up,” Fedorowski said. “We started off hot and the clock happened to be in our favor at the end.”

Prior Lake showed quickly why it’s the No. 1 team in the state.

Senior Emerson Mattox scored 40 seconds into the game, and the Lakers scored two more goals in the first two minutes on the way to a 20-11 victory over Lakeville South.

The win pushes the top-seeded, undefeated Lakers (18-0) back to the state championship game, where they’ll look to reclaim the title they last won in 2021. It also avenges a loss in last year’s state final to Lakeville South. The fifth-seeded Cougars (14-4) entered the tournament ranked sixth.

“We came in with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder but also knew Lakeville South wanted it just as much as we did,” Prior Lake head coach Heather Pierson said.

The Lakers, South Suburban Conference champions, scored six goals in the first quarter and held a 10-9 lead at halftime after senior Charlotte Fannin led a comeback by Lakeville South.

Abby Grove, Prior Lake’s junior standout and regular-season team leader in goals, scored five goals and added an assist. Britney Pinkowski, also a junior, added four goals, two coming in the fourth quarter, when the Lakers pulled away.

Pinkowski was handed the team’s “Eat Belt,” a WWE-style trophy awarded to whoever the coaches deem to be the game’s MVP.

“It’s not always going to the highest goal scorer or who had the most draw controls,” Pierson said. “It’s about who worked all over the field, and Britney really stepped up today.”

Mattox finished with three goals and three assists and was a big part of a 10-goal second-half surge when the Lakers outscored the Cougars 10-2. Prior Lake outshot Lakeville South 29-15 and allowed just two shots on goal in the fourth quarter.

Fannin, Minnesota’s scoring leader with 122 points entering the playoffs, was double-teamed for most of the second half while her team’s defense deteriorated as Prior Lake dominated in possession time.