Gallery • 7 Photos

Javier Whitaker-Castaneda

Junior Hayley Hoffmann (far left) looks for a passing option.

St Paul United Lacrosse, a co-op team between Visitation and St. Paul Academy and Summit School, faced strong competition right away in their first game of the season. They played the Breck Mustangs, ranked 8th in state for Girls Lacrosse, at Breck’s McKnight Stadium home field.

Breck showed right away why they are ranked in state and started the game with a very direct offense that brought the Mustangs to a 3-0 lead. A few saves from sophomore goalie Betsy Romans kept the game from getting out of hand for United and the first half ended 7-4.

The Mustangs scored right away in the second half but then the game entered it’s quietest period. About 15 minutes went by with only two goals. Neither offense really went for goal during this period of the game but the defense got more intense and a lot more fouls were called.

The score was suspended at 10-4 for a while. Then, with 6 minutes left, the game blossomed into an open, end-to-end contest. Breck scored to make it 11-4 but United responded within seconds. United broke away on a few counter attacks but were unable to put any goals away.

Again, United responded right away to a Breck goal, making the score 12-6 with only a few minutes left to play. Breck had eased off the throttle and United saw most of the possession for the last few minutes but it was too late to really make a difference in the game. Junior Hayley Hoffmann ended the game with a goal in the last 10 seconds, leaving the final score: 12-7.

For the future, United looks to create a high scoring attack to match the output of ranked teams like Breck.

“We will try to improve our attack, I think one of the things about lacrosse is its a high scoring game so making sure everyone is able to mesh on the attack will completely change the way we play in games” senior Ella Matticks said.