The Lakeville North Panthers took on school rival Prior Lake at 730 Tuesday evening. After a washout canceled North's original opener against Rochester Mayo the Panthers competed in their first contest much closer to home in front of a sizeable crowd.

Lakeville North's strong defense was evident early as they forced a turnover on the opening possession. The Lakers matched the Panther defense stride for stride turning North over and creating instant offense for the first goal. Bryce Bouman made the first save of the game for the Panthers who moments later converted in transition to tie the game 1-1. North kept the momentum rolling as Ian Klotz scored for the Panthers on the next possession giving North the 2-1 lead.

Prior Lake controlled the next minute of possession, but they were shut down on a nice save by Bouman. Prior Lake did score with their next shot, however the goal was taken off the board because of a timeout, called moments before by the Lakers. The coaching mistake didn't matter as Ben Ward went top shelf to tie the game with a minute left in the quarter. The back and forth game continued as Roman Rohrbach got the last goal of the quarter and gave North the 3-2 lead after the first.

The Lakers started the second how North ended the 1st with a goal scored by Carter Collins. Prior Lake’s Ward added his second goal of the game after he wheeled around the point and beat Bouman! His goal gave Prior Lake a 4-3 lead. North answered in dramatic fashion as Tyler Gryga bounced a shot  top shelf and celebrated his goal with a triumphant fist pump.

The first penalty of the game was called against North after a loose ball scrum which sent Ryan Bissonett to the penalty area for 30 seconds after a push. North killed off the penalty but were again stalled on the offensive end.

After a stagnant scoring pause Prior Lake retook the lead 5 to 4. Luke Anderson wouldn't be out done matched the Lakers at 5. In the last goal of a lighting round of scoring Ben Ward again hit the twine giving the Lakers the lead 6-5.

The Panthers again rallied back and tied the game on a goal by Ryan Bissonnet with just 4 seconds left in the half! The first half was rifed with intrigue as both teams led and the game was tied 4 times. The first was highlighted by a few big hits and a cagey possession based half with the key factor being turnovers. Tied at 6 the teams were set up for a close second half.

The second continued the trend of possession based lacrosse with offensive turnovers. Prior Lake retained the majority of the possession but did not secure any concrete scoring chances until Sean Carlson buried a goal after the Lakers blundered their way to the short side.

North took to their turn of the possession chess match but turned the ball over behind the net. The transition game picked up a little bit but the Lakers couldn't click on a beautiful link up play. After things settled down the Lakers did receive a gift of a goal when Sean Carlson punched in a ball that sat just in front of the crease after a good save by Bouman.

The Lakers first penalty came on a loose ball slash but the Panthers squandered the opportunity turning the ball over. The Lakers killed the penalty and scored a goal of their own giving them a 3 goal cushion. Crucial in a back and forth game

Some confusion arose after North was called for unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of the 3rd and started the 4th a man down.

The Penalty would hurt Lakeville North as the Lakers scored just 35 seconds in. They added another uncharacteristically in transition to make the score 11-6. It was after it looked like they would put the game away that Prior Lake took a bad penalty giving North some hope who took no time scoring only to see the goal was disallowed due to a crease violation. Ben Ward continued his scoring ways which demoralized the Panthers on the heels of the disallowed goal. Roman Rohrbach added a 7th for North on a slick spin move towards the goal businessly finding the net.

Danny Jury took a another big penalty for Prior Lake, a 3 minute non releasable slash. Luke Anderson gave North a huge boost scoring on the non releasable to cut the lead to 12-8 Prior Lake. Prior Lake won the next draw, a huge feat down a man. They ran the clock all the way down to 3:40 before North got the ball back. North took their time scoring the next goal cutting the lead to 3 with 2:45 left. Just when it looked like North would pull back into the game.

Prior Lake won the next hard fought faceoff and called timeout to try to bleed the clock. Prior Lake took the clock all the way down in non dramatic fashion to win the game 12-9.

Postgame starting Panther goalie Bryce Bouman said the tide really turned in Prior Lake’s favor when “coming into halftime they got a couple of quick ones (goals) and we just couldn’t quite turn their momentum back.”

Head coach Jeff Wright also added “there were some jitters, we are trying to figure out our team and our chemistry. The biggest part is we had a lot of positive notes, going into halftime it was 6-6 we just had a rough 3rd quarter.”

Prior Lake Lakers 12 vs Lakeville North Panthers 9