Four-time defending state champion Blake showed up to its home stadium early for Friday’s much-anticipated showdown with arch rival Eden Prairie.

Really early.

This meant the Bears had plenty of extra time to kill. So they got creative with their face paint. Senior Anne Slusser, in particular, took the application to the extreme.

Intimidating? 

“That’s the goal,” said Slusser, a midfielder who scored three goals and added an assist in the No. 1-ranked Bears’ 15-10 triumph over the No. 2 Eagles. “We all try to go hard on the face paint.”

Looking like she walked straight off the set of Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart,” the fearsome Slusser – half her face was painted completely black and the other half sported black stripes – played with her usual no-prisoners intensity.

“Anne has always been the unsung hero of our team in some ways because you don’t get as much credit when you are playing a lot of defense and playing a lot of midfield,” Blake coach Laura Mark said. “This year it has been fun to see her get more credit for scoring goals, but she is still doing all the same things she has been doing for five years.”

Slusser always has played in-your-face defense. This season, her fifth on the varsity, she’s added some slick passing and a scorer’s touch to her portfolio. Her chemistry with Lydia Sutton, last year’s state coaches’ association and Star Tribune All-Metro Player of the Year and another five-year starter, was evident on Friday.

Two of Slusser’s goals came on feeds from Sutton. 

“Those goals are really our favorite to do,” Slusser said. “We love the assisted goals, we love the passing. It’s really pretty lacrosse. We live for that.”

Both Slusser and Sutton, who sat out two games last week with what Mark said could be a mild concussion, played shut down defense along with their lights out offense.

At one point in the second half, Sutton turned the ball over deep in the Eden Prairie end, then raced to the other half of the field and, seconds later, created a turnover and stole the ball in front of the Blake goal. Such is the type of all-out play when the state’s top programs meet.

“They are all friends, which is nice,” Eden Prairie coach Judy Baxter said. “The coaching staffs are friends, the players are friends. But they compete. When they are out there they compete for blood.”

After the game it was back to being friends. All the Eden Prairie and Blake players who were on the same summer elite team – which was pretty much everyone – threw arms on each other’s shoulders and struck a pose for a group picture.

“That’s the family aspect of lacrosse,” Eden Prairie senior defender Katie Fuhs said. “We will have that with almost every team, but especially this team."


Blake's Lydia Sutton, left, races past Eden Prairie's Katie Fuhs. Photo by Loren Nelson

First Report

Senior Lydia Sutton, last year’s Star Tribune All-Metro Player of the Year, scored four goals and assisted on three others to lead No. 1-ranked Blake past No. 2 Eden Prairie 15-10 on Friday.

Sutton, a midfielder who has committed to play at Southern California, set up senior midfielder Anne Slusser for a goal that put the four-time defending state champion Bears (11-2) ahead 14-8 with 10:29 left in the second quarter. That goal, one of three for Slusser, was part of 6-1 run after halftime that put Blake in control.

Junior Angie Heppelman and sophomore Sara Woodring each scored three goals to lead Eden Prairie (11-2) in the regular season finale for both teams. Heppelman scored with 1.5 seconds left in the second quarter pull the Eagles to within 8-7.

All three of the combined losses for Blake and Eden Prairie entering Thursday’s matchup had come against top-ranked Illinois schools Loyola Academy and New Trier. The Eagles and Bears have combined to win all seven championships since the state tournament was sponsored by the Minnesota State High School League.

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