MBSLA Top 10 after Week 1

With only a few games played in Week 1 of the MBSLA season, there were surprisingly, some great match ups. And, after week 1, we'll already see some significant movement in our rankings. Ten games were played in Duluth at beautiful Malosky Stadium last Sunday including a match up between #1 ranked and defending state champion Hudson and #3 ranked Duluth.  This one started out as we expected with both teams trading goals and it looked like it would be a tight battle with the last team with the ball at the end of the game likely taking the win.  However, Duluth had other things in mind playing at home, and controlled the ball and the game by taking a decisive early season victory over Hudson 13-4.  Faceoff man Cooper Carlson fared well against last years all-state midfielder and FOGO McKay Potter.  Duluth got scoring from all over the field with 5 different players scoring including a nice 5 goal 2 assist game from attackman Dan O' Connell.  The Duluth defense looked solid as well, holding a high powered Hudson team to only 4 goals.  Duluth also picked up a win against Red River Valley 18-3, in an indication of the youth and relative inexperience of the former Fargo team.  Hudson picked up a decisive win over #7 ranked Proctor.  However, Proctor looked solid in their other two games, both wins, and finished the weekend 2-1.

In the other game of the week against two top-ranked teams, #5 Becker picked up a solid 10-6 win over #2 ranked St. Louis Park.  This game was tied at halftime 4-4 before Becker pulled away in the second half.  This early in the season, we don't want to read too much into these top 5 matchups, but both Becker and Duluth appear to be strong this season.  Hudson and St. Louis Park are sure to be there in the end, and will use these early season losses as motivation for the remainder of the season. 

Duluth moves up to #1 with their victory over Hudson.  If you beat the best and pick up another win, you deserve to ascend to the top spot in the poll.  St. Paul moves up to #2 even though idle.  We still think St. Paul will be very strong this season.  St. Paul kicks off their season with a match up against an unknown Stillwater club team tonight.  Becker vaults two spots up to #3 with a win over a very good St. Louis Park team.  Park drops to #5, just behind Hudson at #4.  We saw enough of Proctor this weekend to see that they will be a solid team despite the loss to Hudson.  They remain at #7.  Red River Valley lost all three games over the weekend and drop out of the Top 10.  STMA, with two wins and looking improved over 2013, join the Top 10 at #10.  The remainder of the Top 10 teams were idle.  With some movement at the top and bottom, here is our MBSLA Top 10 after week 1: