MBSLA Top 10 May 7

Northern Lights Lacrosse took a couple weeks off to let things settle out with a few more games before putting together our most recent MBSLA Top 10 rankings.  With so many postponements and cancellations due to the weather, it's been tough to get enough games in to make sense of where teams are at.  After a couple of weeks, we have a little better idea where teams sit right now.  The top 5 teams look solid and after that there's a bit of a drop off.  While there are a few very good teams in the MBSLA this year, the drop off to the bottom tier of teams is drastic, as evidenced by scores of 21-2, 18-4 and games that end at the half 15-0 with the starters of the winning team being pulled for the entire second half.  League wide disparity in talent and experience is becoming an issue in the MBSLA.  Exactly where that bottom tier lies is difficult to determine as well.

Duluth continues to roll finishing the week at 6-0 with a lopsided win over Brainerd.  Becker also stays undefeated with a lopsided win over Waconia.  Hudson also picks up a lopsided win over Mankato.  Lopsided wins all around! (ugh...).  After a couple of weeks and a couple of wins over St. Paul, St. Louis Park is back to their dominant ways as well.  We still think St. Paul is a good team, but St. Louis Park appears to be quite a bit better.  We'll see a nice match-up next week with St. Louis Park taking on Hudson.  In the bottom half of the Top 10, Grand Rapids shut down Proctor with a 5-3 win.  While over the weekend, St. Cloud North beat Grand Rapids in the Grand Rapids Shootout for the Varsity Championship.  The Shootout by the way, was once again well organized and run and was a lot of fun as always.  We'll need a couple more weeks to determine exactly where these three teams shake out in the Top 10.  STMA rounds out the Northern Lights Lacrosse Top 10 at #10. 

Here's the Northern Lights Lacrosse Top 10 after 5 weeks of play:

MBSLA Top 10 After Week 2

Another blizzard hit Minnesota on Wednesday night (April 16) and cancelled more games and will threaten a few more in the next several days, but a few games were played in week 2 of the MBSLA season.  St. Paul opened play with a resounding win over the new Stillwater club team.  Top 10 team St. Cloud North also opened play against a couple top ranked teams and dropped a close one to Proctor in OT and then were beaten by top ranked Duluth.  St. Louis Park bounced back from their loss to Becker to trounce Top 10 team Grand Rapids.  STMA stayed undefeated on the season with a win over Wayzata early in the week.  By virtue of their undefeated record, they jump 2 places to #8 while Grand Rapids and St. Cloud North, both winless after 2 weeks, drop one spot.  The remaining teams stay the same.  After two weeks of play here is the Northern Lights lacrosse MBSLA Top 10:

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:

2014 MBSLA Pre-Season Top 10

The first games of the 2014 MBSLA lacrosse season are scheduled to be played this weekend in Duluth.  Of all places in the state, Duluth is hosting the season's first games.  Fortunately, Duluth has reached an agreement with University of Minnesota-Duluth to play the games on the recently cleared turf at Malosky Stadium (there were areas on the field with over 3 feet of snow that needed to be cleared).  Unfortunately, another major winter storm has been predicted for Thursday night into Friday.  It's looking questionable whether the first game on Friday night will be played. It looks like a repeat of last season with too much snow, indoor practices and the start to the lacrosse season in doubt for many places in Minnesota.

This pre-season ranking is a best effort and certainly not definitive.  To come up with our rankings, we looked at last years performance, the number of seniors lost, top scorers and players returning from last year and returning all-conference and all-state performers.  Please feel free to comment on the rankings and let us know why we're right or why we're wrong.

MBSLA Pre-season Top 10: 

1.  Hudson - Last season's MBSLA State Champion Hudson will begin the season ranked #1.  Until someone challenges them and knocks them off their perch, they'll remain the pre-season favorite.  Hudson does return one of the best players in the State in senior McKay Potter, an All-State selection at both midfield and faceoff.  They do however lose some of their scoring punch with the graduation of All-State Attackman Brandon Schwartz, 2nd Team All-Conference Attackman Taren Motte, and 2nd Team All-Conference Midfielder Riley Collins.  They do have several returning contributors from last year to complement Potter including All-State LSM senior Cole Bjork and All-State Goalie senior Jordan Madden.  In addition they return  1st Team All-Conference Defenseman sophomore Gabe Franck and 2nd Team All-Conference Defenseman senior Connor McGill.  If Hudson can replace a couple major contributors at attack on offense it looks like they return several key players including an all-state goalie on the defensive side of the ball.  Hudson should remain a tough team to beat and a favorite to take home another state championship.

2.  St. Louis Park - St. Louis Park proved once again that they are a contender once playoffs arrive.  For the 6th time in 7 years St. Louis Park made it to the MBSLA Championship game.  And, St. Louis Park should be loaded for 2014 as well.  The Orioles return All-American midfielder, senior Carlos Sequenza along with much of their scoring punch in All-State attack junior Matt Harkema and 2nd team All-Conference performers, attack freshman Brody Ilstrup and midfielder senior Henry Albrecht.  While losing all-conference performer Eric Speicher on Defense and solid goalie Will Harkema, they return some younger defenseman including senior Joey Kramer, a 2nd team all-conference performer last season.  St. Louis Park looks to have the firepower to compete for a 7th state championship in 2014.

3.  Duluth - Duluth had a remarkable year in 2013 finishing the season in 3rd place and finishing up with a 19-1 record, perfect in the regular season.  But for this Chargers squad, 3rd place wasn't quite good enough.  Nothing short of a shot at a championship in the title game will be satisfying enough for Duluth in 2014.  It looks like they might just have the firepower to get there.  The question mark for Duluth remains with the defense.  Duluth begins the season needing to replace All-State performer, defenseman Tanner Fritszinger and All-Conference Honorable Mention defenseman Hunter Wieczorek, a solid presence on the other side.  Duluth will look to senior Seamus Mackinaw, a 2nd team All-Conference performer, to lead the young defense this season.  Capable juniors, defenseman August Cadotte and LSM Mike Nowicki, both All-Conference Honorable Mention performers last year, will help solidify the defense.  Duluth also loses 1st team All-Conference goalie TJ Vallie.  Freshman goalie Mitchell Pelkey will have to step up big for Duluth and he has the ability to do so.  Fortunately for Duluth they return all of their scoring punch.  The midfield will be led by All-State Honorable Mention senior midfielder Cooper Carlson and 1st team All-Conference midfielder sophomore Bryce Holak.  The Chargers return all 3 attackmen from last year as well, 1st team All-Conference senior Brody Carlson, 2nd team All-Conference junior Jesse Larson and All-Conference Honorable Mention junior Dan O' Connell.  This team should be able to put some points on the board in 2014.  The question mark will be if the young defense can step up.  If they can, this team should have a good shot a their first title game in club history.

4.  St. Paul - St. Paul is another team that has a great shot at a title game appearance in 2014.  They return possibly the best player in the state from last season, All-American attack, senior Jesse Rice.  St. Paul also returns an important cog in their defense with the return of senior All-State defenseman Noah Johnson.  The only significant losses for St. Paul were the graduations of 2nd team All-Conference performers attack Billy Tapio and defenseman Andy Broadnax.  St. Paul returns several young contributors all over the field led by 1st team All-Conference midfielder junior Josh Galkowski, and 2nd team All-Conference performers, junior goalie Garrett Goskey, junior midfielder Brady Olson, and junior LSM Austin Cameron.  I'm predicting that St. Paul will be one of the top two teams in the state by the end of the season.

5.  Becker - Becker is another team to keep a close eye on in 2014.  An early season match-up with St. Louis Park should give us a pretty good idea what this team may be capable of in 2014.  The young Becker squad took Duluth to the brink in the 3rd place game last season and should be even better this year.  Led by 1st team All-Conference attack senior Tyler Kruse and 1st team midfielder sophomore Milan Kent as well as 2nd team All-Conference performers senior attack Ethan Boutin, senior midfielder Ben Gilchrist and junior defenseman Adam Ewald the Bulldogs will be tough to beat.  Add in a few more improving young players and this team has a good shot to make it back to at least the 3rd place game in 2014.  Watch out for the Bulldogs!

6.  Shattuck-St. Mary's - Shattuck once again should have a great squad.  As always they won't participate in the playoffs, but should have a good shot to make it through the season undefeated.  They have a guantlet of tough games against the top 4 teams in the MBSLA in Hudson, St. Louis Park, Duluth and St. Paul so it will be interesting to see how they fare against these top teams.

7.  Proctor -Proctor is a team that will surprise people in 2014.  They finished the 2013 season strong and they are my prediction of a team on the rise this year.  With a dynamic attackman in 1st team All-Conference junior Luke Hannan and a speedy midfielder who can bring the ball upfield to feed Hannan or score in 2nd team All-Conference senior Frank Napoli, Proctor should be able to put points on the board.  It's the defense that could be Proctors achilles heel in 2014.  Led by solid 2nd team All-Conference defenseman junior Jake Wick, the young defense will have to grow up quickly.  The addition of several good athletes to Proctor's squad in 2014 should bolster their chances.  The numbers are growing in Proctor and this team could challenge Duluth for the top spot in the North.  A late season match-up with Duluth after some of the younger athletic players have had a chance to grow and develop some chemistry should be a game to watch.


8.  Grand Rapids - Grand Rapids will once again have a strong squad in 2014 and could also challenge Duluth in the North.  It's fun to watch teams like Grand Rapids and Duluth and now Proctor grow and develop and become perennially good teams in the MBSLA.  They've come a long ways from the days when one win on the season was a major victory and it's evidence that lacrosse is here to stay in the North.  While Grand Rapids did lose some scoring punch with the graduation of 2nd team All-Conference performer and leading scorer Chase Hunter and 2nd leading scorer Jackson Schwartz, they return many strong young players led by 1st team All-Conference LSM senior Graham Gallop and 1st team defenseman junior Logan Anderson.  They also return 2nd team All-Conference performers midfielders Carl Kasse a senior and Nick Zerfas a junior.  Senior goalie Grant Gunderson, an all-conference goalie in 2012 also returns.  All-Conference Honorable Mention, senior midfielder Trevor Hopkins adds to the strong midfield core for Grand Rapids.  With the addition of some promising young attack and defense, Grand Rapids can compete for a top 5 spot in the state and a shot at the top spot in the North.


9.  St. Cloud North - St. Cloud North should be good again in 2014, but they'll have to replace the departures of All-State performers defenseman Tyler Minkel and midfielder Matt Worzala who both graduated.  St. Cloud North should be strong on offense with the return of second and third leading scorers attack junior Carter Kasianov and senior Jake Nelson, both 2nd team All-Conference in 2013.  The defense may be their question mark where they lost both Minkel and 1st team All-Conference defenseman Tucker Isaacson.  Senior Logan Smoley, a 2nd team All-Conference defenseman will have to lead the defense in 2014.  1st team All-Conference goalie senior Tyler Demenge will bolster the defense as well.  St. Cloud North is looking like the primary threat to Becker for supremacy in the West in 2014.

10.  Red River Valley - Formely Fargo, Red River Valley will have a tough time repeating their successes of 2013.  With the loss of the top scorer in the MBSLA, attack Carter Shulke to graduation, it will be tough for Red River Valley to put as many points up as they did last year.  Red River Valley also lost 2nd leading scorer Alek Halverson to graduation.  The Polars will need 1st team All-Conference junior midfielder Aric Foster and All-Conference Honorable Mention sophomore Connor King to step up.  This young team will fare as well as their young players develop and could be a challenge later in the season.

Honorable Mention:  
Stillwater Club - We don't really know what to expect from this club team from a big school with a strong high school lacrosse tradition (exactly what we said about Wayzata last season).  They could be very good, or not.
Brainerd -Brainerd should be improved over 2013 and have a lighting fast midfielder in Bodin Nicols that should turn some heads.
Grand Cities - Grand Cities is young this year and could develop into a solid team as the season progresses and the young players build some chemistry.

Look for updated Top 10's as the season progresses.

Early MBSLA Predictions

As we did last year, we'll take an early look at who will be the favorites in the MBSLA in 2014. 

The 2014 MBSLA season continues a recent trend of exodus from the club league to the MSHSL.  Top teams like Shakopee and MontiQuois have bolted from the MBSLA along with up and coming teams like Providence Academy and Northfield (the latter two having only played two MBSLA seasons before moving on).  Henry-Sibley also disbanded their varsity team in favor of a JV only team.  The addition of a Stillwater club team and New Century-Hutchinson leaves us with only 18 teams competing for the 2014 MBSLA championship.

In 2014, I see four very good teams standing out above all others:  2013 MBSLA State Champion Hudson, St. Louis Park, Duluth and St. Paul.  Becker is right there as well.  After that there are some good teams, but probably not at the "compete for a state title" caliber.  The top four, I believe, all have a shot to win the 2014 title and would likely be fairly strong teams were they competing in the MSHSL.  Of the four, Hudson probably lost the most scoring firepower, but will still be strong and have a lot of talent coming up.  St. Louis Park, Duluth and St. Paul all return much of their scoring punch and will be tough teams to beat.  One team I see making a big breakthrough in 2014 is Proctor.  They have a big and dynamic attack player to pair with a couple of strong middies.  If their goalie can return from injury in 2014, they will surprise a lot of people.  Grand Rapids will be strong again in 2014 and return several starters, but did lose a few key contributors to graduation as well.  Red River Valley (formerly Fargo) may take a small step backward after losing one of the top offensive players in the state to graduation, but should remain in the Top 10.  St. Cloud North should be a Top 10 team once again and I see teams like Brainerd, Waconia, and STMA seeing improvement in 2014.  Grand Cities could take a small step back after graduating some good seniors but could be there as well and we're unsure where the Stillwater Club team will shake out.  Shattuck-St. Mary's will be really good as always, but they play few games and can't qualify for the playoffs. 

Looking forward to the start of the 2014 season and we'll be back in late March with our official MBSLA pre-season Top 10 rankings.  Stay tuned!

Final 2013 MBSLA Top 10

With the MBSLA season culminating in a State Championship victory for #1 ranked Hudson,
Northern Lights Lacrosse is releasing their final Top 10 of the season.

Photo from MN Lax Hub

Our "bracketology" predictions proved to be almost eerily accurate unfortunately at the expense of northern Minnesota teams.  Becker was the bracket-buster and blew up some of our predictions from the beginning.  Our prediction of St. Louis Park beating Duluth in the semi-finals for the right to play in the Championship game was all too accurate and a tough pill to swallow for this northern Minnesota lacrosse fan.  In our bracketology predictions we said, "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."  That statement proved to be spot on.  Duluth made the long trip down to a neutral site at Minneapolis Washburn (2.5 hours for Duluth; 16 minutes for St. Louis Park), they slept through the 2nd quarter and were down 8-2 at halftime after giving up 6 goals in the second.  Duluth did fight back and outscored the Orioles 5-3 in the second half, but it wouldn't be enough in their 11-7 playoff loss, their first loss of the season.  Other than the Becker upsets, our playoff bracketology was correct for every other game in the playoffs!

Hats off to Becker for a great run in the playoffs.  And, talk about battling back!  Duluth jumped out to a seemingly insurmountable 11-1 lead in the first half of the 3rd place game.  They were taking their frustrations out on Becker and then a light switched off for Duluth and on for Becker.  Becker battled back in the second half, and in the end Duluth eked out a 14-13 victory to take 3rd place in State.  Becker placed a very deserving 4th place.

On to our final rankings.  Hudson clearly earns the top spot with a nice 9-5 State Championship victory over St. Louis Park.  St. Louis Park moves up to #2 after beating Duluth in the semifinals and then battling mightily against Hudson in the State Championship game before falling in the end.  It was the Orioles 6th trip to the state championship game in 7 years.  Duluth drops to #3 after losing their first game of the season in the playoffs to St. Louis Park.  Duluth completes their most successful season in club history with a 14-1 season record.  St. Paul remains at #4 after beating a good Northfield team and then losing in the playoffs to a very good Duluth team.  St. Paul's Junior attackman Jesse Rice may be the best MBSLA player we've seen play all year.  Shattuck-St. Mary's stays at #5.  MontiQuois stays at #6 after beating a surprising Proctor team and then dropping one to runner-up St. Louis Park.  Becker moves into the Top 10 at #7 after their spectacular run through the playoffs eventually finishing 4th at the state tournament.  Props to Becker!  Northfield drops to #8 and despite a losing record (5-6), this team was good.  All of their losses were to Top 5 or playoff teams.  They deserve their spot at #8.  Grand Rapids drops to #9 after losing in the first round of the playoffs to Becker.  Unfortunately for Grand Rapids, Mr. Hyde showed up as we predicted and they dropped their opening round playoff game.  Fargo rounds out the Top 10 at #10 after their solid opening round victory over St. Cloud North (just as we predicted :-).  Unfortunately for them, their next playoff game was against eventual state champion Hudson.

 

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	PREV
1	Hudson	12-0	1
2	St. Louis Park	12-3	3
3	Duluth	14-1	2
4	St. Paul	6-5	4
5	Shattuck-St. Mary's	5-1	5
6	MontiQuois	7-4	6
7	Becker	9-5	NR
8	Northfield	5-6	7
9	Grand Rapids	5-4	8
10	Fargo	6-4	9

It ended up being a very good and very exciting MBSLA season after a very rough start with the slow Spring and eternal Winter.  Here's to hoping for an earlier Spring in 2014 and an even more exciting MBSLA season!

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)

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

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

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

MBSLA Coaches Poll April 29

MBSLA State Rankings | APRIL 29, 2013

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

MBSLA Pre-Season Top 10 Coaches Poll

The MNLaxHub has posted their MBSLA pre-season Top 10 coaches poll.  Very similar to our Top 10, but we would definitely include Fargo whereas MNLaxHub omits them.

MBSLA State Rankings | APRIL 11, 2012
PRESEASON

RANK	TEAM	2012 RECORD
1.	Shattuck-St. Mary's Sabres | South	7-0
2.	Shakopee Sabers | South	11-6
3.	St. Louis Park Orioles | East	11-5
4.	Hudson Raiders | East	10-2
5.	Duluth Chargers | North	8-4
6.	MontiQuois MontiQuois | West	13-3
7.	St. Cloud North Knights | West	11-2
8.	Grand Rapids Indians | North	8-7
9.	St. Paul Celts | East	5-8
10.	Henry Sibley Warriors | East	4-9

2013 MBSLA Preseason Top 10

The 2013 MBSLA lacrosse season is upon us with league games beginning this weekend,

assuming the predicted mid-week blizzard doesn't cancel all of them.  Again, this is a best effort and certainly not definitive.  To come up with our rankings, we looked at last years performance, the number of seniors lost, top scorers and players returning from last year and returning all-conference and all-state performers.  Please feel free to comment on the rankings and let us know why we're right or why we're wrong.

MBSLA Pre-season Top 10: 

1.  St. Louis Park - With last years defending champion Delano moving on to the MSHSL, last years runner-up naturally moves into the top spot in the rankings.  But, we're not just ranking St. Louis Park #1 this year because they finished 2nd in the state, this team has a lot of talent returning from a very good 2012 squad.  St. Louis Park always manages to come on strong at the end of the season, evidenced by their runner-up status the last two seasons and state championship 3 seasons ago.  The Orioles return a strong core of defensive players led by all-state defenseman senior Eric Speicher, all-conference senior goalie Will Harkema and 2nd team all-conference defenseman junior Daren Martin.  On offense, all-conference midfielder junior Carlos Siguenza and 2nd team all-conference selection, sophomore attack Matt Harkema lead the way.  The Orioles did lose some firepower with attack Max Sherno graduating, but Coach Reed always seems to find replacements and it's quite likely his team will once again be there in the end playing for another state championship.

2.  Shakopee - Like Hudson last year and Delano the year before, Shakopee is ready to make a big leap up the standings and challenge for a number 1 ranking.  Shakopee was a very good team last year and made it to the final four at the state tournament.  With one of the strongest groups of players returning from last season, Shakopee could make a run at a state title in 2013.  Shakopee will be led by all-state midfielder, junior Sean Surbaugh.  Along with Surbaugh, the teams second leading scorer, 1st team all-conference attack junior Bubba Kudes returns to give them a strong one-two punch on offense.  The Sabers also return 2nd team all-conference selections seniorLSM Ethan Callies and senior goalie Chaydon O'Fallon.  With experience at key positions will Shakopee be able to replace graduation losses on defense to compete for a state championship in 2013?

3.  MontiQuois - While MontiQuois lost a host of top players to graduation (six 1st or 2nd team all-conference selections), they return two of their top three scorers from 2012 in 1st team all-conference selection junior attack Oliver Winsor and 2nd team all-conference sophomore attack Brady Artwohl.  MontiQuois has a strong tradition and continues to develop new talent.  They will have a major rebuilding job on defense to replace the graduation losses of 1st team all-conference goalie Aaron Job, 2nd team all-conference defensemen Matt and Mike Munson and FO specialist 1st team all-conference Alex Folkerds.  If MontiQuois can do a good job rebuilding their defense, they will have a good shot to make it back to the final four again in 2013.

4.  Hudson -Hudson proved us right last season as we predicted they would make a big jump up the standings, and they did. With 4 of their top 5 scorers returning this season, we think Hudson will remain atop the standings and perhaps challenge for a state title.  While Hudson lost several all-conference selections to graduation including 1st teamers in midfielder Anthony Queener, defenseman Alec Vanasse, FO Spencer Knapp and 2nd team defenseman Connor O-Keefe, they return several standout performers at important positions.  Returning 1st team all-conference selections for Hudson include junior midfielder McKay Potter, junior goalie Jordan Madden and 2nd team all-conference attack senior Taren Motte.  They also return their leading scorer, senior attack Brandon Schwartz.  If Hudson can replace a couple of all-conference poles on the defensive side, they should consider themselves a contender for the MBSLA title

5.  Duluth -  This position could easily be interchangeable with St. Cloud North.  We're going to go out on a limb to predict that Duluth will finally get over on St. Cloud North and beat them in their head-to-head match ups this season.  Duluth is a young up and coming team.  While Duluth lost their leading scorer Steven Halver to graduation and also two of their starting midfielders, Tyler Kolquist and Zach Galo, we believe they'll find scoring from many more locations this season.  When Halver was bottled up last season, the Chargers found it difficult to put points on the board.  With second leading scorer, junior attack Brody Carlson returning along with a host of talented sophomores including attackmen Jesse Larson and Dan O' Connell and midfielders Beau Holappa, Xander Hasan and Zach Zierden along with senior attack Jimmy Bendas, junior midfielders Kevin Marshall and Aaron Kilpo and freshman midfielder Bryce Holak, Duluth shouldn't have too much trouble putting points on the board.  Add to this mix senior midfielder Beau Hughes, who missed the entire 2012 campaign with a knee injury, and we believe this team will be stronger than last year.  Even more promising for the Chargers is the return of their entire starting defense including 1st team all-conference goalie senior T.J. Vallie and 2nd team all-conference senior Tanner Fritsinger.  If the young players step up as we expect, Duluth may find themselves near the top of the standings come playoff time.

6.  St. Cloud North -  As we said above,St. Cloud North could easily be placed in the top 5 and the tilt against Duluth mid-season will go a long way in determining where St. Cloud will finish.  St. Cloud lost several important seniors from a talented 2012 team to graduation including leading scorer and 1st team all-conference selection attack Mike Whitson.  Also lost were all-american selection defenseman Tyler Minkel and 2nd team all-conference midfielder Ryan Bidinger.  St. Cloud returns two all-conference face-off specialists in Matt Worzala and Sam Wateland.  St. Cloud North has been the strongest team in the North for the past several years.  With a move to the West in 2013, it may be more difficult to secure the conference championship, but if they're able to replace significant graduation losses, particularly to their defense, they should remain near the top of the standings this season.

7.  Grand Rapids - Grand Rapids had a breakthrough season in 2012, finishing the season with a winning record for the first time in their clubs history.  While the team lost several important seniors to graduation, we think their younger players will step up, and Grand Rapids will challenge Duluth for supremacy in the North.  Grand Rapids lost their top two scorers from last season, all-conference attack Joey Keating and all-conference midfielder Brody Geisler, but return their next three scorers in senior attack Jackson Schwartz, senior midfielder Brad Sandeen and junior attack Christian Higginbotham.  Add to this mix several speedy young scorers in sophomore midfielders Nic Zerfas and Riley Jensen and junior midfielders Carl Kaase and Trevor Hopkins and experienced attackman senior Chase Hunter, and Grand Rapids should put points on the board.  Defense is where Grand Rapids needs to find replacements for graduated all-conference poles Zach Brist and Zach Grandia.  Fortunately for them, they have 2nd team all-conference goalie Grant Gunderson returning along with strong sophomore defenseman Logan Anderson to anchor the defense.  We see Grand Rapids steadily improving again this season with a good chance to make some noise and rise toward the top of the standings in 2013.

8.  Fargo - The trend toward North dominance continues with Fargo cracking the top 10 for the first time in their clubs history.  The North has several established teams in 2013 and Fargo looks to see a lot of improvement with an influx of new talent this season.  With the return of leading scorer and first team all-conference selection attack Carter Schulke, the offense has a strong anchor to rely on.  Fargo did lose 4 all-conference selections to graduation in midfielder Aaron Monson, attack Aaron Vanyo and defensemen Mike Kringlie and John Deelstra.  To offset these losses, Fargo was fortunate to have several new players with significant lacrosse experience move into the community with their families and join the team.  The Halverson Brothers, Alek  and Conner, arrived in Fargo from Texas bringing with them a lot of talent to the offensive side of the ball.  Alek a senior, put up big numbers last season in Texas at attack, and his younger brother Conner beings speed to the midfield position.  Tanner Brandt arrived from New York and will help anchor the defense.  With the additions of these new and experienced lacrosse players to the Warriors roster, we predict Fargo will make a jump into the top 10 in 2013.  Their improvement toward the end of the 2012 season also supports our prediction.

9.  St. Paul - St. Paul is perennially a strong team in the MBSLA.  With Rogers moving up to the MSHSL, the #9 slot should go to the Celts.  With their top three scorers returning this season including all-conference junior attack Jesse Rice and senior attackemen Eric Basch and Billy Tapio, the Celts should have no problem scoring in 2013.  Add to the mix all-conference defenseman senior Andy Brodnax and St. Paul may not only improve on last seasons 4-7 record and be in the top 10, but challenge for a spot in the top 5 as well. 

10.  Shattuck - St. Mary's - Shattuck - St. Mary's, once again an enigma, will most likely be the most talented team in the MBSLA in 2013.  Once again however, with a short season and no chance to play in the playoffs, we put them in the top 10, but don't really know where to rank them. We predict they'll be good again and most likely finish the season with an unblemished record.

Honorable Mention:  
Wayzata Club - We don't really know what to expect from this club team from a big school with a strong high school lacrosse tradition.  They could be very good, or not.
Grand Cities and Brainerd - two teams from the North that should be much improved over 2012.

Look for an updated Top 10 as the season progresses.