An offensive flurry allowed No. 2-seeded Benilde-St. Margaret’s to ease past No. 3 seed Holy Angels 17-11 on Thursday in a Section 6 semifinal on Thursday at Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park.

The Red Knights offense was lead by senior Michael Lamb, as he scored three goals and notched two assists. Benilde- St. Margaret’s coach Colin Mulcahy said the team looks to Lamb to shoulder a bulk of the offensive load. 

“He’s going to carry us through the playoffs, so were going to look to him quite a bit,” Mulcahy said. 

The senior captain made an immediate impact when he scored the game's opening goal with 10:40 left in the first quarter. Lamb shook Holy Angels defender and fired a shot from just outside the crease that beat Stars goalie Connor Duffy. 

Duffy faced an onslaught of Red Knights shots in the first half and turned away several initial shots but Benilde- St. Margaret’s capitalized on it’s rebound chances. 

Mulcahy said jumping out to an early lead was necessary if the Red Knights wanted to advance to the section final. 

“We talked at the beginning of the game that we needed to play a full 48 minutes, get that early lead and stay on top of it the entire game,” he said. “That was one of our goals and we came out and we accomplished that right off the bat.” 

After the first quarter the Red Knights held a 6-1 lead, but the Stars came out in the second attacking and narrowed their deficit to three. 

Benlide- St. Margaret’s rebounded with three unanswered goals of its own, including a rocket shot from senior midfielder Gibson Reine from about 15 yards out that found the back of the net. 

Reine’s goal came with 36 seconds left in the first half and gave the Red Knights a 9-3 lead. 

Star’s junior midfielder Scott McNamara refused to let his team roll over in the second half as he scored back-to-back goals midway through the third. The first came from the pass of senior Sam Turner, who found the dashing McNamara in front of the net for the score.  

Under a minute later McNamara scored his second of the game. He finished with four goals. 

Every time the Stars built momentum the Red Knights answered with a score and with 6:30 left senior Josh Werkmeister buried his fifth goal of the game and gave Benlide-St. Margaret’s it’s biggest lead of the night at nine goals.  

After losing in the semifinal the past two seasons, the Red Knights advance to the section final and will face No. 1 seeded Blake at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Benlide-St. Margaret’s School.

-- Ellis Williams

First Report

Senior midfielder Josh Werkmeister scored five goals to match his season high and lead No. 2-seeded Benilde-St. Margaret’s to a 17-11 triumph over No. 3 Holy Angels in a Section 6 semifinal on Thursday at Benilde-St. Margaret’s School in St. Louis Park.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s advances to next Tuesday’s Section 6 championship game against the winner of Thursday’s semifinal between No. 1 seed Blake and St. Thomas Academy. The game is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. at Benilde-St. Margaret’s.

Werkmeister scored three of his goals in the second half as the Red Knights (13-2) expanded on a 9-3 halftime lead by building as much as a 17-8 cushion on the second of back-to-back goals by Werkmeister with 7 minutes, 32 seconds remaining.

Junior midfielder Scott McNamara scored four goals and senior attackman Sam Turner had three to pace Holy Angels (12-3).

Senior attackman Michael Lamb and senior midfielder Gibson Reine each scored three goals for Benilde-St. Margaret’s. Lamb and long-stick midfielder Jacob Donlin, a senior, each were state coaches’ association All-America and First-Team All-State selections in voting released earlier this week.  Lamb has 73 points (39 goals, 34 assists) to lead the state in scoring.

-- Loren Nelson

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