Tiger Scoreboard: January 5, 2014

Wrestling
Tiger Duals Invitational
Farmington defeats Northfield and Paynesville and loses to Lakeville North in pool competition and downs Milaca for third place in the eight-team meet.

Boys Swimming and Diving
Maroon and Gold Invitational at the University of Minnesota
Farmington finishes eighth among 16 teams in the Bronze Division with 262 points.

Gymnastics
Faribault Invitational
Farmington places eighth in a 14-team field with a team score of 135.25.

Boys B-Ball: Tigers win No. 10

Mac Bassett 10 points, 10 rebounds (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Farmington showed no ill effects from playing two nights in a row, rolling by Irondale 77-43 Friday night in New Brighton.

The win was the 10th in 12 outings for the Tigers who scored a similarly lopsided victory over North St. Paul (68-39) on Thursday.

Like the win over the Polars, the outcome of Friday's night's contest was decided early with the visitors sailing to a 45-21 lead at the halftime break.

The final 18-minute period was second verse same as the first even though Tiger coach Shane Wyandt substituted liberally.

"I thought we really played solid defense early," coach Shane Wyandt said, "and as we made a few corrections to our transition game we were able to get out and run. 

"They (Irondale) had a very difficult time with us in the full court both offensively and defensively.  We were able to get good shots and lay-ups off the break and we also forced some turnovers with our press."

Seventeen Farmington players saw floor time in win No. 10. Thirteen of them dented the scoring column with three finishing in double figures.

Leading scorer Zach Speikers paced the offense with 15 points. Johnny Dittman hit double digits for the second night in a row with 13 and Mac Bassett put together a statistical double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Wyandt said he and his staff were not satisfied with their team's work on the defensive glass in the first half so they challenged individuals to "become greedy" and see who could get the most rebounds.

"Mac took that seriously and really did a nice job of getting after the boards on both ends," Wyandt said.

Wyatt Ferm and Dallas Guyot each pulled down five rebounds for the winners. Speikers led in assists with four. Bassett and Ferm each came up with three steals.

The Tigers will take their lofty record into Missota Conference play Tuesday when they travel to Chaska to battle the Hawks who defeated Red Wing 71-68 Friday night.

Girls B-Ball: Back to .500

Sofia Chadwick 31 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Sofia Chadwick scored a game-high 31 points and the Tigers shot a season-high 49 percent from the floor (24 of 49) on the way to a 79-62 win over Henry Sibley Friday night in West St. Paul.

The victory was the second straight for Farmington and raised its season record back to the .500 mark at 5-5.

"We were still not at 100 percent strength tonight due to illness," coach Sondra Chadwick said, "but we had some kids step up and play well.

"I wasn't too happy with giving up 62 points, but the girls shot well enough and hit their free throws to keep us ahead."

Starting forward Jordyn Homeier missed the game due to illness and center Kaitlyn Gorden fell ill during the game and did not return after intermission.

Farmington raced to a 40-25 halftime lead and then traded baskets with the Warriors for most of the second period.

One of the big factors in the win was foul shooting. The Tigers converted 24 of 28 tries from the charity stripe (86 percent), including 16 out of 20 in the second half.

Abby Gallus 16 points on 5 of 7 shooting (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Chadwick passed the 30-point mark in a game for the second time this season with 14 of her 31 coming off Sibley turnovers. The all-Missota Conference guard also grabbed seven rebounds and dished out five assists.

Chadwick got good offensive support from Abby Gallus and Alicia Hett who finished with 16 and 13 points respectively. Gallus was an efficient five for seven form the field and Hett nailed a trio of three-pointers in the first half.

"That brought Sibley out of their zone," coach Chadwick said.

Leah Hammond finished with eight points. Morgan Mach chipped in with six and Heidi Lambrecht had five.

Tuesday the Tigers will be looking to run their win streak to three games when they travel to Northfield for a Missota Conference match-up with the Raiders.

Girls Hockey: Resilient Tigers win again

Tyler Words scored the final Tiger goal (photo by Jim Lindquist)

What a difference a couple of weeks can make in a hockey season.

In mid-December the Tigers were working hard but had little to show for their efforts. The offense wasn't getting a lot of shots and the outlook for the rest of the season was looking anything but rosy.

Fast forward to the first week in January following Friday night's 5-3 Missota Conference win over Holy Angels at Schmitz-Maki Arena. That same team has now four of its last five starts and raised its once anemic record to 6-9-1.

 "The last three weeks have been very eye-opening for the girls," coach Jon Holmes said. "They are beginning to see their dedication, hard work, and determination pay off. We certainly have much work left to get where these girls need to be by the end of the season, but their recent success is very well-earned."

Farmington led the entire game although the Stars made things interesting with a couple of power play scores early in the final period.

Breanna Raske (from Ellie Moser) and Maddi Oines (from Megan Stivers) scored first period goals for the winners before second period scores from Oines (from Michaela Tonsager and Stivers) and Shelby Klotz (from Moser) made it 4-1 heading into the final intermission.

Shelby Klotz netted the third Farmington goal (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Then came the two Holy Angels' power play goals and all of a sudden it was a one-goal game with 15:29 still to play.

"We still must be cognizant of the small battles we have to overcome throughout the year and not trade one good habit for a former bad one that plagued us for the first part of the season," Holmes said.

Tyler Words (from Rachael Welzin) gave the Tigers what they needed with a goal midway through the final frame to put the game away.

Farmington finished with a dominant 45-15 edge in shots on goal, a number Holmes said illustrates how far his team has come in a short period of time.

"In the beginning of the year we were averaging 15 shots per game," he said. "In the last three weeks we have been averaging 31. That is a huge turnaround.  T

"The biggest piece that really shows this team's character though is not that they have doubled their shots on goal in a very short time, but that they stuck with the practice and game plans for weeks despite the goals not coming."

Molly Singewald picked up the victory in goal, stopping 12 of 15 shots.

The Tigers will try to extend their three-game winning streak Tuesday when they travel to Northfield for a Missota Conference contest. Farmington shut out the Raiders 1-0 when the team met earlier at Schmitz-Maki.

Boys Hockey: My Stars! Tigers beat HA again

Justin Novak 2 goals, 2 assists (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Last February Farmington went into the Richfield Arena and beat Holy Angels in overtime for their first win against the Stars since, well, forever.

Thursday night they returned to the same rink and made it two in a row with a hard-fought 6-4 Missota Conference victory.

"We're not running on all cylinders yet, but we came out with a big conference win just the same," coach Keith Revels said. "We answered each of their comeback attempts with a goal of our own to push lead when we had to. That's something that has given us trouble in past."

Early on it looked like the visitors would cruise to their ninth win of the season. Devin Bernu (from Tyler Jette and Justin Novak) scored the only goal of the opening period and then John Siebenaler (from Novak and Erik Holmstrom) and Grady Hauswirth (from Tanner Grubb and Jack Erickson) opened the lead to 3-0 in the second.

Each of Farmington's first three scores came on the power play.

"Both sides took too many penalties," Revels said. "We got caught up in some unnecessary battles of words.We need to stay out of that nonsense as it becomes a distraction to the task at hand."

The Stars countered with a pair of scores in the closing minutes of the second period to make it a one-goal game headed to the final break.

Erik Holmstrom 3 assists (photo by Jim Lindquist)

Novak found the net 39 seconds into the final period and three minutes later Erickson scored on assists from Holmstrom and Grubb to restore the three-goal edge.

The Stars rallied, however, with two goals in an 83-second span midway through the third to make things interesting.

Novak's  second score of the night finally sealed the deal with four minutes to play in regulation.

Gage Overby returned to the Farmington nets after a two-game absence and picked up the win with a 30-save performance. The Tigers outshot the Stars 38-34.

Novak finished with two goals and a pair of assists for a four-point night. Holmstrom assisted on three of the Tiger goals. Erickson (goal, assists) and Grubb (2 assists) also had multiple point games.

Farmington (9-3-1) will take its five-game unbeaten streak to Schmitz-Maki Arena Tuesday night when it hosts Northfield in a Missota Conference game.