Lee and Morrison combine for 10 goals to power Blake girls past Eden Prairie

Blake sophomore Ellie Morrison (in white) tries to elude Eden Prairie's Ellie Pearson during the second half of Thursday night’s game. Morrison had five goals in the Bears’ 15-10 victory over the Eagles in Hopkins. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine

It may have been Blake’s senior night on Thursday, but it was sophomore Ellie Morrison and junior Erin Lee who stole the show.

Morrison and Lee recorded five goals each in the Bears’ 15-10 defeat of Eden Prairie at William J. Glenn Field at Blake School’s Hopkins Campus. The triumph was Blake’s sixth consecutive win, and it was the Bears’ first victory over the Eagles since winning the 2014 state championship game. At least one of the two teams has appeared in every state title game since the inaugural championship in 2007 and they’ve combined to win all but two of them.

“Every time we play Eden Prairie, it’s going to be a fight regardless of what the win-loss record is for either team. There’s just an innate rivalry there,” Blake coach Sarah Roth said. “We knew it’s not a game we could take lightly, and we had to be playing our best every single minute.”

Lee had Blake, ranked No. 5 in the coaches’ poll, playing its best in the first half. She scored three goals in a row late in the half to give the Bears an 8-4 lead. All five of Lee’s tallies came in the first half, giving her 42 for the season — a mark tied for 12th best in the state.

“Erin’s a great teammate. She got face guarded today, so (she) wasn’t getting as many goals in the second half but she played through it,” Morrison said. “She sees the field really well; she sees everyone’s stick in the air. She finds people and gets a ton of assists.”

Photo Gallery: Eden Prairie vs. Blake

Lee didn’t find nylon again for the Bears (8-2, 1-0) in the second half, but Morrison did — four times. She had back-to-back goals midway through the latter half, giving the Bears a 14-6 lead.

Turns out they needed the separation.

Blake picked up its fourth yellow card with just over 13 minutes remaining in the game, giving No. 10 Eden Prairie a player advantage for the remainder of the evening.

The Eagles (7-4, 4-2) outscored the Bears 4-1 down the stretch with two goals coming from junior midfielder Taylor Kotschevar-Call, who finished the game with five goals. Three of her tallies came within the first eight minutes of the game, and the third gave Eden Prairie its first and only lead of the contest.

But despite being a player short for the final 13 minutes, Blake held on.

“I’m really proud of how hard they fought. Even when we had to play a man down for almost the whole second half, we still fought it out, held our composure and (I’m) really proud of them,” Roth said.

With section playoffs just around the corner, the Bears are doing just what they want to be doing: Playing their best lacrosse. Roth said the team is finding its groove at just the right time.

“I tell them all the time, we can lose every single game as long as we’re playing our best at sections, and we could still go on to win state,” she said. “That’s all I care about is that we are doing better each game.”

The Bears still have three regular-season games to get better before sections, including a matchup against No. 1 Edina next Tuesday.

“We’re just kind of waiting for Edina. We’re excited to play them, hopefully get a win against them,” Morrison said. “I think we can take them.”

Blake’s Erin Lee (19) catches a pass against Eden Prairie Thursday night. Lee had five goals in the Bears’ 15-10 victory over the Eagles in Hopkins. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine

First Report

There haven’t been two teams more dominant in girls’ lacrosse in Minnesota than Eden Prairie and Blake. At least one of the two has appeared in every state title game since the inaugural championship game in 2007 and they’ve combined to win all but two state championships. While there’s been increasing parity in the sport in recent years, that didn’t make Thursday’s matchup between the two any less exciting.

The Eagles and Bears traded goals for the first eight minutes, but three goals in a row from Blake junior Erin Lee helped power Blake to a late first-half lead and a 15-10 victory at William J. Glenn Field at Blake School’s Hopkins Campus. The Bears, ranked No. 5 in the coaches’ poll, have won six consecutive games.

Lee and sophomore fellow Bear Ellie Morrison finished with five goals apiece. All of Lee’s tallies came in the first half and four of Morrison’s came in the second half. Seniors Jackie Weyerhaeuser and Eliot Mitchell added two goals apiece for the Bears (8-2, 1-0).

Junior midfielder Taylor Kotschevar-Call led No. 10 Eden Prairie with five goals, three of which came within the first eight minutes of the game. Sophomore midfielder Brinley Hopper and junior attacker Josie Lillquist each tallied a pair of goals for the Eagles (7-4, 4-2).

The Bears picked up their fourth yellow card of the contest with just over 13 minutes left in the second half but had already built an eight-goal lead. The Eagles quickly scored with the player advantage, outscoring the Bears 4-1 for the remainder of the game, but the deficit proved too much to overcome.

Eden Prairie's Taylor Kotschevar-Call (4) tries to get around Blake’s Catherine Barry (10) during the first half of Thursday night’s game in Hopkins. The Eagles fell to the Bears 15-10. Photo by Jeff Lawler, SportsEngine

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