With 14 returning varsity members, all with a state championship under their name, the Red Knights were anticipated to be the team to beat this year. Well into their season, the undefeated Red Knights have proven this to be true, scoring more than ten goals per game with an average of only letting four goals in per game.
The Red Knights faced off against last year’s biggest rival, the Blake Bears, on Tuesday May 3. BSM started the game off slow trailing 2-1 in the first quarter, but the Red Knights picked up their game before the half scoring four more goals while the Bears only managed to put in one. Both teams played hard during the second half, resulting in a 9-9 tie with only three minutes and thirty-eight seconds left in the game.
Senior Christian Rekow scored a goal with less than two minutes left and Blake was unable to answer as Adam Clark held off Blake’s top scorer, George Ordway. “It was definitely a fun game to play with all of the fans there. Plus, it was really high intensity,” said junior Christian Horn.
Although the game, against the previously undefeated Bears, was big win for the Red Knights, many of the players felt uneasy about the eerie similarity their first game against Blake last year. The lone difference from last year is that the Red Knights were the ones that lost by a single goal in the closing seconds of the game only to come back and dominate the field in the section finals shutting down the Bears with a 13-3 win. With a strong possibility that they will face the Bears yet again in this year’s section tournament, the Red Knights hope that the same sequence of events will not play out again except this time in the favor of the Bears. “I think the thought is always in the back of our minds, but our coach addressed right after the game that we were in their position last year and there is a 99 percent chance we will see them again. It has become our drive for the rest of the season because we know that they will be gunning for us,” said Horn.
The Red Knights will play Totino-Grace, Holy Angels and Wayzata in the final weeks of their season. However, their game against Minnetonka set for Saturday May 14 might be their most crucial game yet. The Skippers, still undefeated, are currently ranked second to BSM; many expect this to be a game to be a thriller and similar to the Blake match up. “[Minnetonka] is a good team, and now that we have beaten EP and Blake, two other good teams, I think it might be getting to our heads a little bit. So it will be a big games, and we will have to keep our focus. We can play with them, but actually beating them is a whole other story,” said senior captain Peter Schubloom.
BSM’s own junior forward, Will Hoesley, does not only lead the team in goals but he also leads the state. He has already put up 38 points for the Red Knights this season along with other top scores including junior Christian Horn, and senior captains Taylor Topousis and Peter Shubloom.
Another key player for the Red Knights is the junior goalie Thomas Gilligan who keeps up a 73% save percentage for the Red Knights. “I think a lot of my save percentage comes from the great D poles in front me, like Zach Silvestri, Ryan Lawyer, Joe Pettinger, Adam Clark, Luke McCormick, Liam Gillespie, and Sam Mogensen. They do a good job of getting on the shooters body making it harder for them to shoot and a lot easier for me to see the shot,” said Gilligian.
