Howie's Prep Sports Notebook, Monday
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Class 1A, No. 1 Hermantown recorded its second boys hockey overtime tie before posting its two most impressive wins of the season last week. The Hawks and Duluth Marshall battled to a 2-2 Lake Superior Conference overtime tie on Tuesday night at Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth. Even more impressively, Hermantown (4-1-2) blitzed host Centennial 5-2 on Friday night and manhandled Maple Grove 3-0 Saturday afternoon at historic Hermantown Arena.
“We started the week off against a much-improved Marshall team,” said Hermantown coach Patrick Andrews. “It felt like a rivalry game again, fast-paced. We got great goaltending from Evan Sundell and timely scoring from Mick Martalock, who collected his first varsity goal, and River Freeman. It was a great learning opportunity for our team and a strong reminder of the level of compete it takes to win games at the high school level.”
The Hawks played their best hockey of the season against a pair of 2A powerhouse teams on the weekend, Andrews said.
“We played well on the road against a tough Centennial team,” he said. “Again, we got great goaltending, this time from Bryce (Francisco), and our seniors came through with River and Henry Peterson scoring goals. Martalock and (Bradford) Skytta rounded out the scoring as we got good scoring depth again.
“We were exceptional Saturday against Maple Grove when we played our most complete game of the season. We got a goal in each period – from (Bode) Madill in the first on the power-play, Freeman his fifth in five games played, and (Alexander) Nicklin getting his first varsity goal to secure the win – all while playing great team defense. One of the things that impressed me the most was our forecheck. For the first time all season our forecheck looked like a Hermantown forecheck. In addition, I was very pleased to see how hard the boys played in front of our net, where we were great at getting sticks and not allowing Maple Grove second-touch scoring opportunities. Bryce also made that job easier by not allowing many rebounds. He was sensational again, stopping all 32 shots and earning his second shutout of the season.”
Andrews said his team “definitely moved up the hill as we continue to climb the mountain that is our season.”
“Things that stood out: special teams were great, we killed well and scored another short-handed goal, the power-play continues to score and is up over 35 percent,” he said. “Our team defense continued to get better, and the forecheck is finally starting to come. As a coach, I ask for effort and improvement, and this team continues to bring both each week. If we continue to get one percent better each day, we should be pretty darn good come February.”
Next up for the Hawks is a Lake Superior Conference home game against Duluth Denfeld (1-6-0) on Tuesday and a signature nonconference game at 2A, No. 9 Rosemount (8-0-0) Friday.
“Denfeld looks dangerous now that they have a complete team back, and then we make the trek south, again, to play a very tough and undefeated Rosemount team," said Andrews.
QUOTE ME
Duluth Denfeld boys basketball coach Phill Homere on his Hunters (2-3), who host Class 3A, Section 7 and Lake Superior Conference rival Hermantown (0-4) on Thursday night – "I feel like playing St. Paul Johnson (a 77-64 home loss last Tuesday) was a huge early season game for us. It gave us an insight how good we can play and how taking care of the ball is very important. We played a very good team and they did a good job of showing us how good we can be inside as well as how our guards have to be able to play against pressure.
Our game at Cloquet (a 71-68 loss on Thursday) was very entertaining. I feel like they did a great job making our guys earn each basket. I love what they are doing in Cloquet and I think we will see them a few more times this season. We currently have a few early-season injuries that we are dealing with, but that’s common with teams.
As far as players who have been playing well for us, MarNaries Ferguson is already off to a really good start averaging 22 points, five rebounds, three assists and four steals per game while shooting 54% from the field. We also have Carter Brown and Berkley Messel, who are both playing really good basketball and will be very important later in the season. We have so many different guys who can help us in different aspects of our system.
Lee Brooks, our point guard, has so much potential and does a really good job getting his teammates involved and creating for them. We also have Nate LaPlante and Antonio Brown, who can be a huge part of the success of this team. Another important kid on our roster who just does all the dirty work is Joshua Seatbelt Rock. This kid is an all-out hard worker, and I will always match him with the other team's best player and can count on him to get the job done.
Our guys have four days until our next game, against Hermantown, so it gives us a chance to get healthy and get ready for a section/conference battle until Christmas break.
I like where we are right now. We still have a lot of work to do but I have a lot of confidence in my guys and I know we will go on a nice little run soon."
HOW 'BOUT THEM HAWKS!
Hermantown’s explosive girls basketball team improved to 5-2 overall and extended its winning streak to three games with impressive victories against Chisago Lakes 65-45 and Grand Rapids 69-25 last week.
“Our goal last week was to ‘win the week,’ which we were able to accomplish by beating two section opponents,” said Hawks coach Eric Borndahl. “We've found a lot of success by going to our size inside with Olivia Johnson and Aurora Decker. Both had double-doubles against Chisago Lakes, and Danika Bolf and Jailyn Sherrill had double-digit points against Grand Rapids.”
Moving forward, Borndahl wants his team to be more dialed in offensively at the beginning of games “as we have not been very efficient to start the last couple games.”
“Yet, I admire our defensive effort and our ability to work hard and gain a nice advantage early in the second half,” said Borndahl.
The Hawks will host Cloquet (2-5, 0-2 LSC) on Tuesday and travel to Duluth Denfeld (1-5, 0-2) Friday. Both are winnable Lake Superior Conference games. Hermantown opened the season with a 60-49 victory against the Lumberjacks.
“We have a huge challenge versus Cloquet, a team we were able to defeat in a tight game to open the season, and I look forward to seeing how we adjust to seeing a team for the second time,” said Borndahl. “We will do our best to use our strengths of numbers and size to the best of our ability, and hope to limit their offensive opportunities with solid defense. Coach Young will have their team ready to play, and it should be a heck of a game.”
Meanwhile, the Hunters are slowly rebuilding their program and eventually look to be competitive.
“We will need to be focused and execute our offensive at a high level in both games,” said Borndahl. “We hope to ‘win the week’ again and set ourselves up for a fun start to the new year.”