Sports
Photos: Eagan/Rosemount Rally Against No. 6 Bloomington Kennedy Falls Just Short
The Wild Irish girls lacrosse team lived up to their nickname in a wild game against visiting Kennedy, going from an 8-all tie to an 8-13 deficit and then back to 12-14 before falling by three
Eagan/Rosemount’s Wild Irish girls put a scare into undefeated and sixth-ranked Bloomington Kennedy, with Kennedy having just a bit more firepower in a 15-12 win Tuesday at Eagan.
It was the third straight conference game the Wild Irish played well enough to win, but couldn’t quite get over the hump.
Tied at 6-all after at the break, Kennedy came out strong in the second half and pulled away from an 7-8 deficit with seven straight goals.
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Trailing 13-8 with just 8:20 to play, it would have been easy for the Wild Irish to throw in the towel. Instead they chipped away and chipped away at the Kennedy lead.
Junior forwards Lisa Crow and Simone Haugen scored a pair of goals each to lead the Eagan/Rosemount rally.
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The Wild Irish got as close as 14-12 with 5:17 to play, but that was as close as Eagan/Rosemount could come, however.
“I think we did pretty good, we stuck with them well,” said Eagan/Rosemount senior captain Abi Rodstein. “We just weren’t as strong in the second half.”
“As a team our defense was pretty strong in the first half,” said Haugen, who led Eagan/Rosemount with five goals. “Our transitions were pretty strong in the first half, too.”
Crow and Rodstein scored two goals each, while Maddie Johnson, Taylor Budge and Shannon Swanson had one goal apiece.
Kennedy improved to 9-0 and remains atop the South Suburban Conference at 4-0. Eagan/Rosemount slipped to 0-4 in the conference and 2-4 overall.
“We are actually -- despite the fact that were 0-4 in the conference and 2-4 overall -- the last two games we’ve seen some really nice signs of what we were expecting to do this year,” said Eagan/Rosemount head coach Jeff Smith. “Kennedy is one of the top teams in the state and we hung with them and we battled to the end and tried to make a little comeback at the end.
“We got ourselves in a little bit of a hole and you can’t do that against top five team," Smith added.
Eagan/Rosemount plays Eastview Thursday at Apple Valley in a game starting at 6 p.m.
