HHS lacrosse boys drop two

The Hastings High School boys lacrosse team, playing in its first season, got its existence off to a great start recently with a lopsided win over Park.

This week, they were dealt their first two setbacks.

On April 12, Hastings lost to Owatonna, 7-2.

This week Hastings lost to White Bear Lake, 13-1.

In Owatonna, Hastings trailed just 2-0 at the half.

“Our defense played well, we just didn't protect the ball enough to give them a break,” coach Brian Jenson said. “The mental mistakes continued through the third as Owatonna scored three more to take a 5-0 lead into the final period. We finally got things going in the fourth, and got our first goal a couple minutes into the fourth from Scott Schlosser, on an assist from Jordan Burr.”

Not long after, defenseman Casey Gillard took the ball the length of the field and scored, but it wasn’t enough to get the Raiders back in the game.

“We were once again without captain and starting defenseman Alex Boyer, who sprained his ankle a couple weeks ago in a scrimmage. He has yet to play in a game. The day after the Park game, another captain and starting defenseman, Connor Stoker, also sprained his ankle. So for Owatonna, we had to move a couple guys down to defense. Ryan Gillard and Nick Baum took their spots, to start alongside Casey Gillard, and they filled in very well. I would say that those three, along with goalie Zach Chilson, were definitely the players of the game for us. They kept the game much closer than it could have been.”

Zach Chilson had 18 saves. Casey Gillard had three ground balls and a takeaway to go with his goal, Ryan Gillard had five ground balls and three takeaways, and Nick Baum had two ground balls and three takeaways. Colin Shoen had seven ground balls while Andrew Cordell won all four faceoffs he took.

Vs WBL

Hastings lost to White Bear Lake on Monday, 13-1. The Bears were in the state tournament last year and placed fourth.

Boyer and Stoker are still out, Casey Gillard and leading scorer Sam McGree were sick, and junior middie Dustin Ohlhauser suffered a concussion.

“We had to bring up sophomore Jordan Wiesenburger and senior Danny Anderson from JV to split time as the third defenseman. It was definitely tough going in without any of our starting poles, but I told the guys that injuries happen. Our defense again did a great job, and that includes our middie defense.

“They really stepped it up after the Owatonna game, and our defensive unit as a whole was better. White Bear was very aggressive with the ball and we had few subs on defense, but we did a great job defending the dodge and not allowing many easy goals. Once again, we couldn't do anything with the ball and our defense suffered.”

Junior Zach Chilson and sophomore Brian Willson split time in net, getting 11 and 10 saves respectively. Junior attack Isaiah McCullough scored the only goal for Hastings half way through the first quarter. Junior Andrew Cordell and sophomore Colin Shoen each had three ground balls.

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