Ben Putney needed a hug after Tuesday night’s Section 4 final against Tartan.  

The junior midfielder scored just 30 seconds into overtime to send Mahtomedi to the state tournament, and his teammates rewarded him with a golf-ball-sized lump on his forehead, complete with a purple bruise and small scar. 

“I didn’t think you guys were going to jump on me,” Putney said to fellow junior Timmy Lindquist.

Putney’s teammates probably couldn’t help themselves. 

Down 12-10 with just over three minutes left in the game, junior Josh Campbell and sophomore Connor Stoker forced overtime with back-to-back goals, setting the stage for Putney’s heroics and showcasing the balance of the Zephyr roster. 

“We have two lines of midfield, four attackmen, we’ve got three lines of defense, two [long stick midfielders]. Look at our stats,” Mahtomedi coach Pete Moosbrugger said after the win. “You’re going to have to defend everybody on this team when we step on the field.”

Opposing teams would do well to keep an extra set of eyes on Lindquist, a junior attacker on the Zephyrs, who are ranked No. 4 in the state coaches’ poll..

“When we ended the season last year and started our summer program, it became obvious when we went into our summer tournaments that he was going to be a catalyst for our team.” Moosbrugger said. 

Lindquist had six goals in Tuesday’s game, which gave him an impressive total of 15 over three-postseason games, running his overall season total to 44 goals and 70 points, leading the Zephyrs.

“It happened to look like I was kind of the one [standout],” Lindquist said. “All [goals were] assisted and [Putney] with the final goal,” he said, citing examples of his team picking him up.

The top three scorers for the Zephyrs in the postseason -- Lindquist, Stoker and Campbell -- are all slated to return next season, a luxury not afforded to the No. 10 Titans (13-3). 

“You’ve got to consistently find young guys to replace the old guys and we were a senior-heavy team this year,” Tartan co-head coach Rick Dickinson said. 

Lindquist and Tartan’s Sam Lindahl both embraced the more physical aspect of the game, with Lindahl leading all players with eight points on six goals and a pair of assists. 

“We went at it in the first game, I think we both had six or seven goals each,” Lindquist said of the teams’ first meeting on May 9, a 11-10 win for the Zephyrs (15-1). 

“We feed off the physical game, especially Ben Putney and Lucas Honebrink,” Lindquist said. “They are our two bulldogs out there.”

Junior midfielder Ben Putney scored 30 seconds into overtime to lift Mahtomedi to a 13-12 win over Tartan in the Section 4 finals on Tuesday night at Roseville Area High School. 

The Zephyrs, ranked No. 4 in the state coaches’ poll, tied the game at 12-12 with just over a minute left in regulation on sophomore attacker Connor Stoker’s first goal of the contest. 

Mahtomedi junior midfielder Josh Campbell pulled the Zephyrs within one goal at 12-11, less than three minutes before Stoker’s goal.

Junior attacker Timmy Lindquist scored the first six goals of the game for the Zephyrs (15-1) before assisting on Stoker’s game-tying score. 

Tartan senior attacker Sam Lindahl led all players with six goals and eight points in the loss for the No. 10 Titans (13-3). 

The MN Lacrosse Hub polls are for entertainment purposes only.