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St. Michael-Albertville 13, Chisago Lakes 9

The dream undefeated season for the Chisago Lakes boys lacrosse team came to a crashing halt Tuesday, May 23 against St. Michael Albertville.

“This was a hard battle.  We exchanged goals back and forth for the first half of the game and knew it was going to be a tough game the whole way,” Head Coach Mark Nordby said.

By halftime, Chisago Lakes was down just one goal at 8-7. “We discussed at halftime that we were not playing our brand of ball.  We hadn't faced a strong opponent in a while so I think we were a bit back on our heels even though we were only down by one,” Nordby explained. “We came out of halftime and got a goal right away to tie it up at 8-8 and it felt like we were moving in the right direction but we just didn't take care of the ball on the offensive end and on the defensive side, we were not communicating well.”

Nordby said he thought the ‘Cats got a little complacent with their recent big wins so the loss will help them get refocused. “We have to come to the understanding that we need to have a complete game in all areas of our game going forward.”

Chisago Lakes 17  Forest Lake 6

The ‘Cats bounced back in their regular season finale, throttling the Forest Lake Rangers at home on senior night.

“We knew we needed a good game to get the bad taste out of our mouths from the loss to St. Michael,” Nordby said. “Forest Lake just happened to be the next team to help us with that.”

It was a beautiful night to honor 16 seniors on the team.  “Many of these guys have been playing lacrosse for 8-10 years,” their long-time coach said. “They helped this team elevate to where we are so it was a nice win to send them into sections.”

Section Preview

With their 12-1 record and Great West Metro Conference title, the Wildcats drew the top seed in Section 7 playoffs. 

They’ll face Andover  Thursday, June 1 at Chisago Lakes and will have home field advantage for as long as they keep winning.  If they get past the Huskies, they’d face the winner of the Blaine-Anoka tilt Tuesday, June 6.

Familiar foe,  Centennial drew the second seed and Duluth is the third seed.

“We'll be prepared to play any team that we need to.  The guys are ready to make a great run,” Nordby said.  “We hope to see a great crowd at  these section games at home.  It'll be great to play in our stadium and show the Chisago Lakes community what a great sport lacrosse is.”

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