Mahtomedi and Stillwater have established themselves as east-metro powers, and a 7-7 tie served as the only blemish on the records of each in Homegrown Lacrosse’s winter league.
The schools, separated by just seven miles, meet again Tuesday, this time as part of their varsity schedules.
Scoring should not be an issue for the Zephyrs, who return five of their six double-digit scorers from last year. But winning faceoffs could be difficult after the graduation of Lucas Honebrink, who owned a 78.9 winning percentage last season. Now the team looks to fill a void at FOGO, and Colin Hagstrom could be a likely candidate as he won 76 of 104 faceoffs last spring as a freshman.
The Ponies haven’t beaten Mahtomedi this decade and will be eager to claim their first win after two close games a year ago. Stillwater had its season opener spoiled by an 8-6 loss to the Zephyrs, who also recorded a 10-8 victory in the Section 4 semifinals.
The Ponies return a bevy of scorers, but they graduated their starting goalie from last year. Luke VandenBergh is expected to fill the role after seeing limited minutes as a junior.