Huskies offense explodes in 20-10 over Rochester Mayo

 Facing a 3-1 deficit just minutes into the first quarter, the Owatonna boys lacrosse team was looking for the spark that could ignite the comeback.
Junior Tyler Wencl didn’t just provide the spark. He was the surge.
Scoring seven goals, Wencl (6-2, 5-1 Big Nine) led the Huskies to a 20-10 regular season sweep over Rochester Mayo Friday night at OHS Stadium in Big Nine Conference action.
“We had quite a few guys score,” noted Huskies head coach Scott Seykora. “I was happy with our offensive performance.”
The scoring barrage started early and often as each team recorded a pair of goals just three minutes into the contest. Mayo’s Jacob Aglin fired a wrist shot from the high slot that just beat the stick of Huskies’ goaltender Ryan Johnson. Just minutes later, Nate Smith scored after a nice feed from Mitch Wiese to tie the game at 1-1. In a span of two minutes following Smith’s goal, Aglin and Andrew Cramer gave the Spartans a 3-1.
That’s when Wencl found his groove.
The Owatonna junior was able to fire a laser from deep to cut the lead to 3-2 at the 3:31-mark of the first quarter. Just a minute later, Josh Nelson made a sharp pass to Walker Nelson, who was able to just flick the ball in.
In fact, with just under two minutes left in the half, Wencl would give the Huskies a 4-3 lead prior to Josh Nelson netting the first of his five goals on the evening. Nelson would net his second just seconds into the second quarter to give the Huskies a commanding 6-3 lead. Seykora noted that the Wencl’s threat is a compliment to the guys he plays with.
“He’s a go-getter,” he added. “One thing that has really helped his play is the other guys around him. They understand how important it is to have a lot of off-ball movement and to make yourself busy.”
After Smith’s second goal of the game, the Spartans managed to cut the lead to 7-4 after AJ Mercurio was able to go coast-to-coast for the goal. That would be the closest the score would ever get since the 1-1 tie in the first quarter.
In the final six-minutes, 17-seconds of the first half, Owatonna would continue to build on their lead. Walker Nelson would net his second goal of the game off an intercepted pass before Wencl would find the net twice, one of which came with 13.2 seconds left in the half.
The Huskies had a balanced attack through the entire contest, with five players recording goals and four having multi-goal games. Joining Wencl was Josh Nelson and Nate Smith, who each scored five goals. Walker Nelson also had a pair of goals. One of those five would net his first goal of the season. After taking a pass from Johnson, Brett Solie cruised across the field before firing a hard wrist shot just feet from the net just prior to the end of the third quarter.
“You want everyone you put on the field to be a threat to score,” noted Seykora. “When you move the ball around and you get four or five guys having multiple-goal games, the defense can’t just worry about one guy, they have to worry about more and that’s how you win games.”
In the final quarter of play, the Spartans managed to record a trio of goals to cut the lead to 19-9. However, the game ended from the stick of the Husky who opened the scoring in the game as Smith would tally his fifth goal of the game with 56 seconds left.
Owatonna will host Eagan on Tuesday.