Girls Hockey: Senior Night shutout

by Nate Rowan

The 2012 senior class (top to bottom):
Molly, Friedlund, Jessica Erchul,
Betsy Anderson and Katie Burgess
(photos by Jim Lindquist)




Holy Angels won its first conference game of the season and defeated Farmington 2-0, Tuesday night in a Senior Night game at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

The Tigers (8-15-0, 4-7-0) outshot the Stars 43-19 but were unable to put any past Holy Angels goaltender Caroline Riester.

"I am disappointed," coach Jon Holmes said. "I'm not sure why we thought we could just show up and win but I am pretty sure that is what happened. Despite out shooting them profoundly we struggled to take care of the little things in our own defensive end."

The Stars used a three-minute span at the end of the first period and beginning of the second to net the only goals of the game. Amanda Navratil scored the game-winner at 15:29, unassisted, and Alyson Niesen recorded the second Stars goal at 1:15 of the second.

Farmington finished 0-for-2 on the power play while Holy Angels were held scoreless in three chances. All three Tiger penalties came in the final period.

Jessica Erchul made 17 saves for Farmington.

Depending on section seeding the contest could have been the final home-ice appearance for four Tiger seniors: Betsy Anderson, Katie Burgess, Jessica Erchul and Molly Friedlund.

"What a wonderful group of kids," Holmes said. "All of them have been with our team and myself for the past five years or more. I have watched them grow from middle schoolers to high school teenagers and now to young adults. They always have a smile on their face and would do anything for any of their teammates at the drop of a hat.

"I cannot say enough how much fun I have had coaching this group of kids this year. Some might look at our record and think it was a tough year to swallow, but this senior group has come positive, upbeat, and ready to learn each and every day."

The Tigers wrap up the regular season on Thursday at Northfield. Farmington will then await the section pairings before beginning the postseason.

Boys Hockey: Tigers take AHA to OT in 3-2 loss

Tiger goal scorers Blake Weinand (top)
and Jack Erickson (photos by Jim Lindquist)


Mario Bianchi scored his second goal of the game three minutes into overtime as Holy Angels defeated Farmington, 3-2, Tuesday night in Richfield.

The Tigers (6-11-2, 3-5-1) allowed a goal 54 seconds into the game, a similar start to the last meeting between these two teams, an 11-2 win by the Stars last month.

“3-2 in OT is certainly progress,” head coach Keith Revels said. “We gave up one in first minute of game something that we also did first time but responded much better this time.”

Holy Angels took that 1-0 lead to the first intermission. Jack Erickson tied the score at 7:58 of the second period with assist from Grant Hauswirth and Dan Block. Under two minutes later, Blake Weinand put Farmington on top with help from Kevin Olund and Dallas Tucker. Bianchi scored his first of the game at 11:55 of the second and the teams were tied after the period.

The teams traded chances in the third period, including a penalty shot by the Stars that was stopped by Victor Simones.

“Other than penalty shot, we had no penalties for the second game in a row,” Revels said.

Bianchi would score the game-winner and ruin an otherwise solid performance from the Tigers.

Farmington hosts Northfield at 7:15 p.m. Friday evening at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

Boys Swimming: Mayo holds off Tigers 89-79

Zach Holton (top)
1st 500 freestyle, 400 freestyle relay
Christopher Kirchmann (bottom)
1st 200 freestyle; 400 freestyle relay


Rochester Mayo won eight of 11 events to score an 89-79 non-conference dual meet win over the Tigers Tuesday night in Rochester.

The loss dropped Farmington, the 2011 True Team Section 1AA champions, to 2-6 in dual competition this season.

"We are having troubles in the dual meets as far as points but in the bigger meets where more swims counts, I hope our depth will demonstrate that strength comes in numbers," Tiger coach Ryan Hamen said.

"We work for the final meets and the boys are working every day to make themselves better."

The three Tiger firsts came from Christopher Kirchmann (200 freestyle), Zach Holton (500 freestyle) and the 400 freestyle relay team of Kirchmann, Holton, Conner Kealy and Aaron Lane.

A trio of other Tigers turned in runner-up performances in individual events, including Aaron Cochnauer, 500 freestyle; Nick Stephan, 100 breaststroke and Lane, 200 individual medley.

Evan Carufel ranked third in the 50 freestyle and Kirchmann and Cameron Molnar placed third respectively in the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke.

"Most of our guys celebrated their season-best swims," Hamen said, "and many were close to their personal-best times. We had a lot of close races we lost by making little mistakes."

Thursday the Tigers head to Chaska Middle School East for their final conference dual of the season against Chaska/Chanhassen.

Girls Basketball: Hawks down Tigers 68-60

Taylor Meyer 20 points, 13 rebounds
(photo by Jim Lindquist)

Tiger coach Sondra Chadwick said that even though her team trailed at Chaska by just two points (32-30) at halftime in Tuesday night's 68-60 Missota Conference loss, she could see a lack of focus in its defensive effort.

"We had too many breakdowns that led to too many wide open shots," she said. "They knocked down five three-pointers in the half. We needed to be staying with our assignments and rotating better."

The Tigers did a better job of shutting down the Hawks' perimeter game in the second period and a steady offensive effort kept the visitors in the contest but in the end the failure to come up with defensive stops when needed proved the difference.

"After we shut down their outside shots, they started to feed the ball to their 6-2 post player," Chadwick said.

The Tigers had chances to to take the lead in the second half but missed opportunities in transition hurt the cause.

Sofia Chadwick's three-pointer with under a minute to play pulled the visitors to within three points but the Tigers were forced to foul and Chaska put the game away from the charity stripe.

Taylor Meyer had her most productive game of the season, scoring a game-high 20 points and snaring 13 rebounds. Isis Alexander tallied 13 points and handed out five assists. Chadwick finished with 13 points, three assists and three steals. Dava White returned to action and chipped in with nine points.

"As we head into the second half of our conference season, we will need to ratchet up our intensity because there will likely be a lot of close games," Chadwick said. "The girls need to understand every single possession is important and we can't ever lose our focus."

The Tigers kick off the final round of conference play with a home contest versus Red Wing Friday night at Tiger Gym. The Wingers won the first game between the two teams 70-68.

Boys Basketball: League-leading Storm too much for injury-riddled Tigers

Alex Chadwick
Four 3-pointers
(photo by Jim Lindquist)

Even with a full lineup Tuesday night's home game with Chanhassen would have been an uphill battle. The Storm are unbeaten (6-0) in Missota Conference play and boast a starting lineup that has been playing together for three years.

Add to the mix that the Tigers (2-4) had two of their top three leading scorers in Darren Beenken and Mackinley Bassett in street clothes and two more went down during the contest and the 77-55 final outcome did not come as much of a surprise.

"They are a very good team and right now we are hurting," Tiger coach Shane Wyandt said. "We have to try to get healthy and get things back together."

Austin Bassett swished a three-pointer to start the night, but the Storm answered with 11 straight points to take a big early lead.

Four three-point baskets, two by Johnny Dittman, helped Farmington stay in it for awhile but even in that department the tall, athletic visitors won out, finishing the first half with seven treys on the way to a 41-27 lead.

Jake Hanson 12 points vs. Storm
(photo by Jim Lindquist)

Baskets by Bassett and Alex Chadwick cut the Farmington deficit to a dozen early in the second half but then center Nick Varner (ankle) and Bassett (knee) limped off with injuries and the long night grew even longer.

Chanhassen at one time led by 28 points at 73-45.

Chadwick nailed four tree-pointers to share Farmington scoring honors with Jake Hanson with 12 points. Dittman had eight, Bassett seven and Zach Speikers six.

The Tigers don't have much time to heal with a Missota Conference road game at Red Wing on tap Friday night.