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Senior moment

By Loren Nelson, Editor, 06/09/10, 12:24AM CDT

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Benilde-St. Margaret's fortunes rest in hands of veteran leaders

Chase Mlnarik, Charlie Gondeck, Bailey Dodds, Ryan Butts.

Seniors.

There are 10 of them on the Benilde-St. Margaret’s roster.

Their job, other than passing and catching and scoring and defending, is to ensure the Red Knights don’t look too far ahead. Or look behind, either.

“I pulled them aside after one of our practices,” Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Colin Mulcahy said about assembling his seniors after a recent Saturday workout session. “I told them they have to reign in the underclassmen.”

“The focus the entire week is just play our game, keep our heads in it and know that Wayzata is our only challenge right now.”

The No. 1-seeded Red Knights (14-1) play No. 4 seed Wayzata (11-6) at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 10, in the first of two semifinal games at Mounds View High School. No. 2 seed Totino-Grace (14-3) plays No. 3 Eagan (12-4) at 8 p.m. in the second semifinal.

The third-place and championship games are scheduled for 6 and 8 p.m. on Friday, June 11, at Mounds View.

After routing unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Blake 13-3 in the Section 5 title game, it would be tempting for the Red Knights, whose only loss this season was by a goal to Blake, to enter the state tournament more cocky than confident.

That is why Mulcahy empowered his seniors to keep the Red Knights planted firmly in the moment.

“I think we are all excited,” Dodds, the state’s scoring leader, said after the Red Knights’ victory over Blake, “but everyone is pretty clear. We’re not stopping now. We have two more to go.”

If a hot goaltender means anything in the playoffs and, of course, it does, then it would be wise for Benilde-St. Margaret’s to be wary of Wayzata.

Trojans senior Hunter Stemmer allowed fewer than seven goals per game during the regular season and posted a 5.77 goals-against average in four section playoff games.

“Hunter is a great goaltender,” said Blake coach Rob Horn, who watched Stemmer shine with several key saves in the closing minutes of Wayzata’s 8-5 Section 6 championship game victory over Minnetonka. “I was really impressed with him from what I saw.”

While no team can match the Benilde-St. Margaret’s duo of Dodds and Butts (164 combined points) for sheer offensive brilliance, Wayzata did get 108 points from the combination of Eric Fong and Sean Keogh.

Fong, just a sophomore, led the Trojans with 35 goals.

The X factor for Wayzata is the availability of Jameson Macgregor, another gifted scorer who has missed all four of the Trojans’ playoff games with a concussion.

“If he does play, that wouldn’t surprise me,” Mulcahy said about the junior midfielder. “He’s a very good player. He’s just another element that can add to their firepower.”

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