Lydia Sutton put her skills on full display during No. 1-ranked Blake’s home-opener against No. 7 Benilde-St. Margaret’s, scoring five goals in the first half to lift the Bears past the Red Knights 12-5 Wednesday night at the Blake School in Hopkins.

Sutton’s first half-performance was essentially a highlight reel of post moves, sly ground ball wins and dead sprints where she sliced her way to the net to score.

Emma Burke saw some love from her senior teammates as Sutton and Anne Slusser each had an assist on Burke's two goals in the third minute of play. Slusser aired a lofty pass to Burke to the left of Benilde-St. Margaret's goaltender Anna DeGiulio, and Burke found the open net. In similar fashion, Sutton scooped a loose ball and sprinted downfield to find Burke at the edge of the net uncontested for the goal. 

“I was once in her shoes, and I know that’s how you begin to be the top player on the team,” Sutton said. “Starting to get her feeds and helping her work on what she needs to work on really helps the whole team.”

A series of miscues threw a monkey wrench in Blake’s typical second half strategy to play possession ball and drain the clock.

“We got a little lazy, a little complacent,” Blake coach Laura Mark said. “They’re a really fast aggressive team, and every time we slowed down it was an opportunity for them to blow by us.”

Benilde-St. Margaret's (7-1) had outscored Blake through most of the second half, but two goals from Olivia Nolan and Sutton turned the half back in favor of the Bears.

Blake (7-0) continues to represent the pinnacle of girl’s lacrosse in Minnesota.

“They always come out ready to go,” Red Knights coach Ana Bowlsby said about the Bears. “They really use each other well, you can tell that they’ve played together.”

Benilde-St. Margaret's was a primer for what’s to come this weekend for Blake. 

A weekend road trip to Milwaukee will be the meeting ground for the two most difficult opponents on Blake’s schedule. Defending Illinois girls’ state champion Loyola Academy, who beat Eden Prairie earlier this season 10-5, and New Trier fresh off an 8-7 win over Illinois rival Loyola to close April.

“It’s always good to challenge yourself,” Mark said. “It was great to play a really feisty, aggressive, and athletic Benilde team.”

“We’re going to see a lot of that speed this weekend.”

World Cup silver medalist Sutton welcomes the challenge.

“Always looking forward to it," Sutton said. "We don’t usually get competition like that and last year it was one of our biggest games. So I’m hoping it’s the same this weekend."

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