Coverage of Duluth's 9-3 Playoff Victory

Fox News 21 coverage of Duluth's 9-3 opening round playoff win over Providence Academy.

MBSLA Bracketology!

I feel like this might be risky to do and invite all kinds of scrutiny, but that's what putting together a blog like this is supposed to do.  Generate conversation.  Plus, I do have a horse in the race, and I hate to jinx that team or be a "Debbie Downer."  Anyway, here goes my bracket predictions from the first round on.

Round 1:

MontiQuois  vs. Proctor

Proctor has improved tremendously over the course of the season.  Big Luke Hannan has been a force at attack for the Rails this Spring.  However, MontiQuois has the experience, they're deeper and they'll win this one.  MontiQuois by 7 over Proctor.

Waconia vs. St. Louis Park

St. Louis Park is too strong for Waconia.  St. Louis Park by 10 over Waconia.

Northfield vs. St. Paul

This should be a good game.  Northfield has a good team with strong midfielders.  St. Paul however is by far the best 3 seed in the MBSLA.  St. Paul is a good team and will ride their attack to a win over a good Northfield team.  I think it will be close.  St. Paul by 2 over Northfield.

Providence Academy vs. Duluth

Duluth should be too strong for Providence.  Playing in Duluth and experiencing the LOOOONNNGGG drive North that northern teams do on a regular basis down to the Cities should be the nail in the coffin for Providence.  They'll sleepwalk through a quarter and by that time it will be too late to beat a good Duluth team, though Providence isn't a bad team.  Duluth by 7 over Providence.

St. Cloud North vs. Fargo

This should be a good game and is a tough one to pick.  I think Carter Schulke at attack for the Warriors will be the difference in this game and Fargo will provide a minor upset with a win over St. Cloud North - though it will be close.  Fargo by 1 over St. Cloud North

Mankato vs. Hudson

We already know Hudson won this one 19-2.  So, Hudson by 17 over Mankato

Shakopee vs. Henry Sibley

Same with this game, a 15-8 win for Shakopee.  Shakopee by 7 over Sibley.

Becker vs. Grand Rapids

This game may be closer than expected.  Becker isn't a bad team and we never know which Grand Rapids team we'll see - the team that thumped Shakopee and St. Louis Park or the one that lost to Proctor and almost lost to Waconia.  I think we'll see the latter in this game (Mr Hyde).  It will be a close one but... Grand Rapids by 3 over Becker

QUARTERFINALS:

Now it starts getting tough.  Here goes...

MontiQuois vs. St. Louis Park 

This should be a pretty good game.  MontiQuois is still a good team and if Oliver Winsor can get on a roll scoring at attack, MontiQuois could challenge in this one.  However, I think Siguenza dominates at the "X" and gets the ball to big Matt Harkema enough for the Orioles to move on.  Plus, I see MontiQuois spending too much time in the penalty box which will be the dagger.  Because of the penalty minutes, I think St. Louis Park wins this one fairly comfortably.  St. Louis Park by 6 over MontiQuois.

Duluth vs. St. Paul

Ughhh.  This is a tough one.  This is a really good St. Paul team.  They played Hudson tougher than anyone all season, coming close in both losses.  This is a really good Duluth team too.  I think Duluth squeaks by in this one because I think the Chargers have a little better defense.  Duluth by 1 over St. Paul.

Fargo vs. Hudson

Fargo is an up and coming team with a few good players, but they don't have the depth.  Hudson is a very good team.  This one probably won't be close.  Hudson by 10 over Fargo.

Shakopee vs. Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids seems to play to their competition.  They beat a good Shakopee team handily earlier in the season and I see them doing it again in this game.  We get the "Dr. Jekyll" Grand Rapids team this time.  Grand Rapids will roll.  Grand Rapids by 5 over Shakopee

SEMIFINALS:

Here we go!  This is where heroes are made (in the prediction world anyway...):

St. Louis Park vs. Duluth

Oh no.  This really IS a TOUGH one!  This game could really go either way...it really could.  Both of these teams are very good.  I hate to do it (Northern Lights Lacrosse, eh!), but I'm going to pick St. Louis Park in this one.  The difference:  Duluth will have to travel 2+ hours to a neutral site for this one.  They'll sleepwalk through the first quarter and the Orioles are WAY to good to allow Duluth to overcome an early deficit.  Duluth will fight back, but in the end, St. Louis Park wins.  How can you pick against them anyway?  They've been in the MBSLA Championship game something like 5 of the last 6 years.  They always rise to the occasion at the end of the season.  St. Louis Park by 2 over Duluth.

Hudson vs. Grand Rapids

Two northern teams in the Final Four.  How cool is that?  Hudson is too strong however and their beast at "X"  McKay Potter, will dominate again and Grand Rapids will not be able to get the possessions they'll need to pull off the upset.  Hudson by 4 over Grand Rapids.

MBSLA Championship Game:

St. Louis Park vs. Hudson

This one is simple.  Hudson dominated the regular season match ups and they'll do it again.  We'll have a new state champion in the MBSLA in 2013.  Hudson by 3 over St. Louis Park

STATE CHAMPION:      HUDSON

Duluth Chargers Lacrosse on Fox News

Yet another news piece about the Duluth Chargers lacrosse team. The Chargers may be the most popular sport in Duluth this spring!

Final Regular Season MBSLA Top 10

Not too much has changed in our final regular season Top 10 for the

2013 MBSLA season.  Hard to believe the regular season is over and we're heading into the playoffs this week.  It was a challenging season that saw every team play fewer games than scheduled due to weather cancellations.

Hudson finishes the season in the MBSLA undefeated and ranked #1.  Their only blemish on the season came to Verona, WI in a tournament played in Madison, WI.  They finish their season with a 9-4 win over Shakopee.  Duluth remains at #2 after picking up two wins this week against two Top 10 opponents, MontiQuios 11-7 and in OT against Northfield 8-7.  Duluth added Northfield after Hudson pulled out of their scheduled Saturday game and it almost cost them a perfect regular season.  Northfield played well at home and this end of the season overtime test may help prepare Duluth for the rigors of the playoffs to come.  St. Louis Park remains at #3 after beating Shakopee.  St. Paul moves up to #4 while Shattuck-St. Mary's drops to #5.  We just feel that St. Paul's strength of schedule warranted this move up (their only losses came to #1 Hudson and #3 St. Louis Park).  MontiQuois moves up to #6 based primarily on their better record.  Having seen them play, this is still a good team.  Northfield is at #7 but I see MontiQuois and Northfield as similar teams and probably are about even.  Four of Northfield's five losses have come against 4 of the top 5 ranked teams in the state.  This is a good team.  The first round match up between St. Paul and Northfield should be the best first round match up in the MBSLA.  Grand Rapids comes in at #8.  This is another team that is similar to MontiQuois and Northfield.  We put them in just below Northfield based on the strength of victories against common opponents.  Northfield's games against common opponents are just a little stronger.  To round out the Top 10 we move Fargo up to #9 and drop Shakopee to #10.  We almost replaced Shakopee with St. Cloud North at #10, but didn't see enough compelling reasons to do so.  As such, let's call St. Cloud North #10b.

The final Northern Lights Lacrosse regular season MBSLA Top 10:

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	PREV
1	Hudson	8-0	1
2	Duluth	11-0	2
3	St. Louis Park	9-2	3
4	St. Paul	5-4	5
5	Shattuck-St. Mary's	5-1	4
6	MontiQuois	6-3	8
7	Northfield	5-5	6
8	Grand Rapids	5-3	7
9	Fargo	4-3	10
10	Shakopee	5-5	9

MBSLA Top 10 May 20

There's quite a bit of shakeup in the MBSLA Top 10 after last week's action.  Some upsets and up and down performances affect some teams while at this point in the season we feel pretty good going with our gut and putting teams in the standings about where we think they should be regardless of who they beat or who they lost to.

Hudson stays at #1 after beating two more very good teams this week, St. Louis Park and a very good St. Paul team who keeps playing Hudson close but can't get over the top, dropping another one by a 9-7 score.  Duluth moves up one spot to #2, remaining undefeated at 9-0 after beating Grand Cities and Fargo last week.  That would have set up a showdown of the only two remaining undefeated teams in the MBSLA this Saturday to end the MBSLA season, a showdown of #1 versus #2 until Hudson pulled out of the game THIS MORNING.  This is a disappointing development as Duluth is ready to play but apparently Hudson doesn't want to.  Duluth was also willing to play on Hudson's home turf (almost 3 hours from home) and yet Hudson still doesn't want to play.  In what would likely have been the spotlight game of the week, Hudson decides to pull the plug.  C'mon Hudson!

Getting back to our rankings after that disappointing development, St. Louis Park moves up to #3 based on their upset of previously #2 ranked Shattuck-St. Mary's.  That, and we really feel that St. Louis Park is a top 3 team even though they dropped another game to Hudson.  Shattuck-St. Mary's drops to #4 after their loss to St. Louis Park.  St. Paul jumps all the way up to #5.  This is a good team.  All of their losses have been to either Hudson or St. Louis Park.  They've played Hudson closer than any other team so far this season, losing both games by only 2 goals, both 9-7 losses.  There's little doubt in my mind they are a top 5 team in the MBSLA.  Northfield climbs from #9 to #6, another big jump.  Again, this is as much gut feeling as results based, but Northfield's results have been pretty good as well.  Northfield pounded Waconia this week.  This is a Waconia team that just upset previously #5 ranked Grand Rapids.  As such, Grand Rapids drops to #7 this week.  Grand Rapids was all over the board this week, losing by one goal to upstart Proctor 12-11, beating previously #4 ranked Shakopee easily 11-5 and then dropping another 1 goal game to aforementioned Waconia 8-7 yesterday.  This is still a good team, but after last week, they should drop in the polls.  MontiQuois remains at #8 this week picking up two uneventful wins but doing nothing to cause them to drop in the poll.  Shakopee comes in a #9 this week after falling all the way down from #4.  Grand Rapids beat them decisively and they also lost big to Shattuck.  This years Shakopee team just doesn't seem quite as good as last years.  Rounding out the top 10 is Fargo.  Fargo won two and dropped another to #2 Duluth on a muddy (VERY muddy) track.

This week I think we need to mention a couple of honorable mention teams.  Becker has been playing well of late and sports a 5-3 record on the season.  Amazingly, Proctor in only their second season in existence with a very small base of students to work with, has shown remarkable improvement, as evidenced by their upset of #7 ranked Grand Rapids last week and 4-4 record.  Proctor truly is a success story worthy of mentioning.  St. Cloud North, with a victory over Becker early this season is still a player and have an inside track on a playoff berth in the West.

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	PREV
1	Hudson	7-0	1
2	Duluth	9-0	3
3	St. Louis Park	8-2	6
4	Shattuck-St. Mary's	5-1	2
5	St. Paul	5-4	7
6	Northfield	4-4	9
7	Grand Rapids	3-4	5
8	MontiQuois	4-2	8
9	Shakopee	4-3	4
10	Fargo	4-3	10

Honorable Mention:  Becker (5-3), Proctor (4-4), St. Cloud North (2-4)

Growth of Lacrosse in Duluth and Grand Rapids

More news coverage of Northern Minnesota lacrosse in the Duluth and Grand Rapids area. A nice piece about how the sport is growing in our area and what the future might hold.

MBSLA Top 10 May 13

There's some shakeup this week in the order of our Top 10 based on results of the past week's games.  We move Hudson to the top spot in this week's poll.  It's mostly just a gut feeling, but we've been a bit more impressed with Hudson's wins this year than Shattuck-St. Mary's, thus Shattuck's drop in the polls to #2 despite not losing a game yet this season.  Hudson feels like the best team in the MBSLA right now.  Duluth jumps one place to #3 after picking up a big 5-4 win over #5 Grand Rapids in a game that likely determined the top spot in the North Division.  Duluth remains undefeated on the season and this team has been generating a little excitement along the North Shore.  Shakopee drops two places to #4 after their loss to upstart Northfield.  Grand Rapids remains at #5 just one spot ahead of St. Louis Park despite their two losses.  We keep Grand Rapids ahead of St. Louis Park primarily based on their impressive head-to-head victory over the Orioles at the Grand Rapids Shootout.  St. Louis Park remains at #6 after picking up a big 6-5 win over St. Paul and a huge blowout win over Sibley.  The Orioles are a very good team and could easily end up in the championship game again this year.  St. Paul stays at #7, and this is a good team despite their three losses - all one or two goal losses to top teams in the state (St. Louis Park, Hudson).  MontiQuois finally picks up some wins and shows that they're still a competitive team.  They come in at #8, up a spot from last week, with wins over St. Cloud North, Becker and Wayzata and a close loss to St. Paul.  Northfield proves they're for real with a big win over Shakopee.  They move up a spot to #9 despite their 4 losses - all to Top 10 teams including the #1 and #2 teams in the MBSLA.  Fargo hangs in at #10 dropping two spots from #8 while not playing a game last week.

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	PREV
1	Hudson	5-0	3
2	Shattuck-St. Mary's	4-0	1
3	Duluth	7-0	4
4	Shakopee	3-1	2
5	Grand Rapids	2-2	5
6	St. Louis Park	7-1	6
7	St. Paul	4-3	7
8	MontiQuois	3-2	9
9	Northfield	2-4	10
10	Fargo	2-2	8

Coverage of Duluth's MBSLA North Victory over Grand Cities

Game Coverage of Big MBSLA North Battle

Northland News Center Channel 6 coverage of last nights big MBSLA North battle between Duluth and Grand Rapids.  Duluth jumped out to a 3-0 lead.  Grand Rapids battled back to tie it 3-3 before Duluth followed with two goals to take a 5-3 lead in the 4th.  Grand Rapids would add another to make it interesting before falling in a close one 5-4.

MBSLA Top 10 May 6

Not too much changes from last weeks Top 10, but there were some shifts based primarily on

results (that do not count on teams MBSLA records) from last weekends Grand Rapids Shootout Tournament.

Shattuck, Shakopee and Hudson all remain in the top 3 spaces (we anticipate changes here next week though! :-).  Duluth remains at #4 despite going undefeated and winning the Grand Rapids Shootout tournament with a 6-4 victory over Grand Rapids.  In the tournament, Duluth beat St. Cloud North twice, Fargo again and Brainerd again in addition to the Championship game victory.  Grand Rapids moves up to #5 with a big win over St. Louis Park in the tourney.  As a result of this, St. Louis Park drops to #6 behind Grand Rapids.  St. Paul moves up to #7 with a couple of nice wins against MontiQuois and big over Sibley.  Fargo moves up a spot due to MontiQuois' drop to #9 in the poll.  MontiQuois played their first two games of the season and lost both, however to good St. Louis Park and St. Paul teams.  St. cloud North drops out and Northfield moves into the Top 10 at #10 on the strength of their strong games against Shakopee and Shattuck.

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	PREV
1	Shattuck-St. Mary's	2-0	1
2	Shakopee	2-0	2
3	Hudson	2-0	3
4	Duluth	5-0	4
5	Grand Rapids	2-1	7
6	St. Louis Park	5-1	5
7	St. Paul	3-2	10
8	Fargo	2-2	9
9	MontiQuois	0-2	6
10	Northfield	1-3	NR

Northern Minnesota Teams Faring Well in Most Recent Coaches Poll

 North teams ranked #3, #4 and #6 in most recent coaches poll

MBSLA State Rankings | May 6, 2013

RANK	TEAM	2013 RECORD	PREV.
1.	Shattuck-St. Mary's Sabres | South	3-0	1
2.	Hudson Raiders | East	2-0	3
3.	Duluth Chargers | North	5-0	5
4.	Grand Rapids Indians | North	2-1	7
5.	St. Louis Park Orioles | East	5-1	4
6.	Fargo Warriors | North	2-2	NR
7.	Shakopee Sabers | South	2-0	2
8.	St. Paul Celts | East	3-2	8
9.	Northfield Raiders | South	1-3	NR
10.	St. Cloud North Knights | West	1-2	9

Watershed Weekend for Northern Minnesota Lacrosse!

For the first time in the history of the Grand Rapids Shootout, two northern Minnesota teams battled for the

Clearing fields for the tournament

Varsity championship when Duluth squared off against Grand Rapids on Sunday.  It was a watershed moment for northern Minnesota lacrosse and perhaps an indication that northern Minnesota lacrosse has taken a big step forward.

In it's 5th year, the Grand Rapids Shootout has grown into one of the top tournaments in the state of Minnesota.  Drawing teams from throughout the state, North Dakota and Canada, this weekend of lacrosse is remarkable, even more so this year with the late April snows and cold weather.  Tournament organizers went above and beyond to pull off the tournament this year, clearing 8 fields of snow a couple weeks prior to the event.  Heavy equipment and snow piles over 10 feet high were required to allow the tournament to go on.  A huge thank you and congratulations to all of the tournament organizers and volunteers who worked so hard to make this tournament happen.  Under very difficult circumstances, the tournament came off without a hitch and had to be the best yet!

Duluth and Grand Rapids battling for a ground ball

With teams from Varsity down to U13, there was something for everyone.  Northern Minnesota teams fared well.  In the Varsity Championship, Duluth won their first ever Grand Rapids Shootout with a 6-4 victory over Grand Rapids.  To get there, Grand Rapids defeated perennial power St. Louis Park 9-3, while Duluth beat St. Cloud North 8-4.  In the championship game, it wasn't easy for Duluth.  Grand Rapids jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead before Duluth even knew what hit them.  The Chargers however didn't panic and methodically chipped away at the Grand Rapids lead, rattling off 6 unanswered goals and helped along the way by several Grand Rapids penalties and a stellar Man Up unit.  It was exciting game and bodes well for lacrosse in northern Minnesota.

At every level, northern Minnesota teams fared well.  The U13 tournament, which included two teams from

James Holak of Duluth U13 moves upfield against Grand Rapids

Duluth and two from Grand Rapids, an exceptional showing of growth at the younger levels, grew tremendously from the previous year and featured some excellent lacrosse play.  The Fargo U13 team fielded one of the top teams in the tournament as another testament to the tremendous growth of the sport in the north.

Teams are already looking forward to next years Grand Rapids Shootout.  Looking forward to more growth for the game of lacrosse in northern Minnesota!

MBSLA Top 10 April 30

Finally, after a week with a few games and no snow, we have enough to base our first in-season MBSLA Top 10 poll on.  The biggest mover is Shattuck-St. Mary's who looks like a squad that will go undefeated again in 2013.  Until they're beat, we'll leave them at #1.  Shakopee barely stays at #2 with a narrow 7-6 victory over Northfield.  Is Northfield that much improved over last season to give Shakopee that much trouble in their first game?  With only one game played, we'll need to see more data.  Hudson moves up one spot on the strength of their solid victory over then #1 St. Louis Park and win over a pretty good St. Paul team.  We move Duluth up one spot on the strength of their 5-0 record and solid victories over St. Cloud North and Fargo.  We felt the St. Cloud game was a early match-up to watch, and Duluth finally beat St. Cloud North for the first time ever.  Duluth also beat a much improved Fargo team and had 3 shut-outs in their other 3 wins.  St. Louis Park drops to #5 with their loss to Hudson.  This is still a very good team and we drop them below Duluth simply because of their records at this point.  MontiQuois easily could have remained at their #3 spot, but we dropped them because they haven't played a game and we have no data to go on.  The other teams that moved up have shown that they can win already this year and we rewarded them for those victories.  Grand Rapids stays at #7 with a nice win over Fargo in OT and a loss to a good St. Louis Park team on a snow covered field.  St. Cloud North drops a couple spots on their loss to Duluth.  They beat Becker and their other loss shouldn't count since it was essentially their JV squad that played against Proctor.  Fargo drops one spot with their losses to two Top 10 teams, Duluth and Grand Rapids.  However, this team is good and deserves to be in the Top 10.  The coaches poll should start giving them a little love.  St. Paul stays in the Top 10 despite two close losses to two very good teams - Hudson and St. Louis Park.  Sibley hasn't played a game yet so we have no data to go on, but St. Paul has shown they are a pretty good team.  The game tomorrow night between St. Paul and Sibley should show us which team should be in the Top 10.

 

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	PREV
1	Shattuck-St. Mary's	2-0	10
2	Shakopee	1-0	2
3	Hudson	2-0	4
4	Duluth	5-0	5
5	St. Louis Park	4-1	1
6	MontiQuois	0-0	3
7	Grand Rapids	2-1	7
8	St. Cloud North	1-2	6
9	Fargo	2-2	8
10	St. Paul	1-2	9