Redemption on the Raiders

The last time the Owatonna High School boys lacrosse team played Northfield, it came down to the final seconds before the Huskies dropped their lone conference loss of the season.
Friday night at OHS Stadium, Owatonna had one thing on their mind.
Redemption and Walker Nelson led the charge.
Scoring five goals and assisting on three others, Nelson and the Huskies (7-3, 6-1 Big Nine) toppled the Raiders 14-9 to hand Northfield its first Big Nine Conference loss of the season.
“We haven’t beat them in a while and it may be the first time we beat them,” commented Huskies head coach Scott Seykora. “It was a fun game, they always come out and compete and they give everything they got. They got a talented squad there so it was good to come out with a win.”
Owatonna quickly established control midway through the first quarter after Josh Nelson managed to beat Raiders goaltender Christoph Tisdale to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead. Nearly a minute later, Walker Nelson’s quick wrist shot extended the lead to two.
The lead would quickly dissipate as Northfield’s Griffin Loecher fired a laser from the point with just over two minutes left in the first quarter to cut the lead to 2-1. Just twenty seconds later, Northfield would tie the game after Ryan Johnson was unable to cover a bouncing ball after blocking the initial shot.
The momentum that was generated in the final minutes of the first quarter carried over to the first three minutes of the second quarter as Northfield continued to build their lead. Loecher would go coast-to-coast to give the Raiders their first lead of the game just 55 seconds into the quarter. The lead would increase to 5-3 by the 8:38-mark of the quarter.
Enter Walker Nelson.
After receiving the feed from Mitch Wiese, Nelson would fire home his second goal of the contest. The junior would notch the hat-trick just under a minute later, beating Tisdale with a shot to the top right corner of the net. His fourth goal of the night and third consecutive of the game would give the Huskies a commanding 5-4 lead into the half. Seykora noted that the quick onslaught is a testament to the effort from the midfielders.
“They’re the workhorses that are getting the ball down to them,” he added. “I know some of our midfielders might feel like they don’t contribute very much on offense, but I think they are realizing right now that their job is to get the ball down to our attackers.”
Just as Northfield managed to carry momentum over, the Huskies were also able to carry it over as just over a minute into the start of the second half, Josh Nelson gave the Huskies a 6-4 lead. In fact, Owatonna extended their lead to 8-4 just under five minutes into the quarter as Tyler Wencl and Josh Nelson recorded goals nearly a minute apart.
After Wencl was able to record his second goal of the game, the Raiders offense exploded. In the final five minutes of the final quarter, Northfield managed to cut the lead to 9-7 after Loecher and Chase Marlenee goals.
It didn’t stop there.
A pair of goals nearly two minutes apart gave the game the third tie of the contest. However, For the final nine minutes, it was all Owatonna. Walker Nelson would give the Huskies the 10-9 lead just 13 seconds later. The Nelson duo was not finished there as Walker assisted on Josh’s fourth goal of the game while on the advantage, which was a real key for Owatonna.
“In lacrosse you have to capitalize when you have a man advantage,” added Seykora. “They kept moving the ball around and found the open man.”
Owatonna would receive insurance goals from Nate Smith and a pair from Wencl in the final four minutes of the contest as most of that time was spent inside the offensive zone.
The Huskies will travel to Mankato Tuesday.