Second Half surge propels Owatonna over Duluth 9-2

Searching for its fourth-straight win, the Owatonna boys lacrosse team played host to Duluth High School Saturday at OHS Stadium.
It took a while for the offense to get into a rhythm, but when it did, there was no shortage of firepower.
Scoring a game-high four goals, junior Tyler Wencl led a second half offensive surge as the Huskies dismantled the Wolfpack 9-2 on a frigid Saturday.
“In the second half of the ballgame, we definitely moved the ball a lot better and used our teammates and had some assists,” commented head coach Scott Seykora.
Both teams looked to establish a presence in the offensive zone early, often cycling the ball around waiting to fire a shot. Although, it appeared a tougher task for Owatonna than Duluth.
Rather than looking for the open teammate early on, Huskies attackers were attempting to wiggle through defenders only to be jarred from the ball. Seykora noted that the early flow offensively led to playing a defensive heavy first quarter.
“The first part of the game, we didn’t hold possession,” he added. “One guy would try to do it and would drop the ball and we ended up on the defense for most of the quarter.”
Midway through the second quarter, Wencl was able to tie the game at 1-1, firing a laser to the top-right corner of the net with roughly six minutes left in the first half. The junior didn’t wait long to add his second goal of the game. In fact, there was roughly a two minute span in between goals for Owatonna. The junior would add his third and fourth goals of the game in the final two quarters.
Taking a 2-1 lead into the half, the Huskies offense appeared to hit another gear in the second half. And it all started from the stick of Walker Nelson.
Weaving through the Wolfpack defense, Nelson registered the first of his three goals midway through the third quarter to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead. Nelson would add his just minutes later, whipping a wrist shot from the slot. In third quarter that featured four goals, three came from the stick of Nelson, his final being with 54 seconds left in the quarter.
The scoring didn’t stop there.
Just a little over two minutes into the fourth quarter, junior Nate Smith scored the first of his back-to-back goals for the Huskies, extending the lead to 7-1. Smith’s second goal would come just moments after a Duluth player was ejected for conduct.
“When you get two teams playing hard, you’re going to get some kids who do things that aren’t legal,” Seykora added. “One thing we need to do is control ourselves a little bit more.”
In the final few minutes, the Duluth offense attempted to generate a late surge scoring midway through the fourth quarter. Despite a late push, the game ended for Owatonna the way it started; from the stick of Wencl, scoring with 44 seconds left in the half.