During a late night at the Hopkins high school stadium, the Hopkins-Park boys’ lacrosse team faced off against the Wayzata Trojans. This was the boys’ lacrosse team’s second game of the season after a win against Forest Lake. After a tough fight against the Trojans, Hopkins-Park lost 0-11.
Varsity head coach Jason Mestemacher said he’s happy that the team persisted and never gave up during the game. He knows that they have a lot more potential as a team and this game didn’t reflect it well.
“I’m proud of how they fought till the end and kept their heads up and played the whole game, but I know we can play a lot better,” Mestemacher said. “It was not a good showing for the skill level that we have.”
Sophomore Finn Zollicoffer said the boys didn’t have a great game, and did not play terrific. There wasn’t a moment that really bettered the tough game either.
“We didn’t play the best today,” Zollicoffer said. “Honestly, there wasn’t really a highlight of the game.”
Hopkins senior Bennett Frodermann said he’s not thrilled with how the game went because of the hard loss. Hopefully in the games to come, putting up some goals is one thing to look forward to.
“(I’m) not exactly happy with the outcome, we lost pretty badly,” Frodermann said. “For the next game actually scoring would have been nice.”
According to Mestemacher, the team came under a lot of pressure and it made it much harder for them to be able to work together. The team wasn’t able to cooperate and build on offensive plays — much of this was due to lack of composure.
“I think we need to come together, run our offense and work as a team and kind of develop better skills under pressure,” Mestemacher said.
According to Frodermann, on the defensive end, the lacrosse team had a good game and played well. The team is starting to work together and they were understanding each other which benefited them.
“Our defense wasn’t too bad, we played pretty good defense. We were figuring that out so that’s good,” Frodermann said.
Mestermacher said a tough start to the season improvement is what to look forward to. They said the whole team will work to build on every game, and individuals will take charge in developing skills.
“I’m excited for the whole season to see how it unfolds. I am also excited to see the improvement of the kids in just the games that we play,” Mestemacher said.
According to Zollicoffer, the defense and midfielders who use shorter sticks need some assistance. They can hopefully make some strides to being better in the next games.
“Hopefully we can improve our short stick D/middies. They need a little help,” Zollicoffer said.
Hopkins-Park’s next varsity game is against Bloomington Kennedy-Jefferson at 7:00 p.m. Apr. 19 at Burnsville High School.
