Eagan/Rosemount Knocks Off Lakeville North With Stunning Rally

This was one of those you-had-to-see-it-to-believe it games.

Trailing 8-5 after an Lakeville North goal with 4:24 to play, the Wild Irish girls of Eagan-Rosemount did the unthinkable and scored four goals in the final 3:07 to stun the ninth-ranked Panthers Wednesday night.

For the Wild Irish the win set off a joyful celebration. Many of the stunned Panthers left the field in tears.

Eagan/Rosemount star Simone Haugen scored four goals, including the game winner with 18 seconds left, to lift the Wild Irish to a Section 3 quarterfinal round girls lacrosse win.

"The bottom line for it was they never quit," said Eagan/Rosemount head coach Jeff Smith. "They believed in themselves. Over the last three or four weeks especially they've really come into their own and they believed they could finish it off. They just kept playing."

Lakeville North led 3-2 after a defensive-dominated first half.

"They're a very good team," Smith said of the Panthers. "That was one of the best defensive efforts I've seen between two teams in my two years of doing this."

The Panthers then seemingly took control of the match by scoring the first three goals of the second half for a 6-2 lead with 18:05 to play.

The teams then traded goals for the next 14 minutes, but when Hannah Koloski scored to give Lakeville North an 8-5 lead with 4:24 to play, the game looked over. It wasn't.

"We're a second half team," said sophomore midfielder Maddie Johnson.

"We really pick it up second half," agreed Lisa Crow. who scored the game-tying goal in the final seconds. "We always do a good first half, but our second half we always come out extra strong."

Johnson noted the Wild Irish's 2010 season was ended by the combined Lakeville North/South team last season.

"It does feel good," Johnson said. "It helps having all this build up about it because we haven't beaten Lakeville North before so we were all super pumped up."

Abi Rodstein scored at the 3:07 mark to give the Wild Irish life, down just 8-6. Then things really got interesting when Rodstein scored again just 23 seconds later to make it 8-7.

Lakeville North goalie Nora Vee stopped one Eagan shot on goal at the 1:15 mark. But the Wild Irish still refused to quit and kept attacking the ball in the Lakeville North goal area.

Eagan/Rosemount junior midfielder Crow tied the game at 8-all with a shot with just 33 seconds left. That set the stage for Haugen's game winner.

"As time goes on we just keep getting better and better and better," said Wild Irish senior goalie Anastastia Smith. "And I think this really pushed that. And it really encouraged it. It made us awesome."

Cassie Miller and Rodstein had two goals each for the Wild Irish, to go with Haugen's four and  Crow's dramatic shot in the final seconds.

Koloski, just a sophomore, scored four goals for Lakeville North.

Rosemount/Eagan will play Apple Valley Tuesday, May 31 at 5 p.m. in the Section 3 tournament semifinals.