Tigers Blank Raiders to Return to State

By Pat Rupp

Sam Moehle scored two goals and assisted on a third and goalie Ryleigh Furlong posted a 15-save shutout as the Tigers defended their 2019 Section 1AA championship with a 4-0 whitewash of Northfield Thursday night at Four Seasons Arena in Owatonna.

The victory punched Farmington’s return trip ticket to the Class AA state tournament scheduled for next week at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The Tigers placed fourth in last year’s state meet.

Farmington coach Jon Holmes said this team’s journey back to state was a special one.

“We really struggled to find our identity as a team for much of the season,” he said. “The final few weeks were much more intense in terms of the changes we were making and the coaching approach we were taking in preparation for the playoffs.

“Throw in the fact that we lost our most prolific scorer (Claire Enright) to injury and the tale becomes one of overcoming adversity. The one thing I absolutely love and respect about this team is that not one of our setbacks ever became a focal point. They were briefly mentioned but the girls showed and did the work regardless of who was there or what was happening outside of their control. It was very inspiring.”

The first period of the championship game told the story with Farmington outshooting Northfield 19-6 and scoring two goals on its suddenly red-hot power play unit. Jayden Seifert tallied her 11th point of the post-season on an assist from Moehle four minutes into the period and later Grace Auge scored unassisted to make it 2-0 heading to the first break.

Farmington finished the three-game section run with eight power plays in 10 opportunities, a blistering 80 percent clip.

Moehle (from Sadie Long) scored the only goal of the second period and then added an exclamation point to the win with a score late in the third on assists from Long and Carly Lancaster.

“Our plan going in was to keep it ‘boring’,” Holmes said. “We wanted to make the game as mundane as possible by shutting down any sort of offense they could possibly mount. We knew they were likely going to have to generate offense on odd-man rushes or taking advantage of us becoming too offensive.  So we just gave that up and played a game where we controlled the puck, kept it deep, and tried to limit our shots to ones where we knew we had open lanes.”

Holmes said that key factors to the section win as well as indicators of what it will take to continue winning at state are the continued solid play of his top forward line and defense along with the steady work of goalkeeper Furlong.

“Our first line of Long, Moehle and Lancaster is starting to jive,” he said. “The defense will also need to continue playing the way they have as they not only provide us with a solid defensive zone, they give us a lot of opportunities offensively...Ryleigh (Furlong) has become very stable in goal the last month and is playing very well.”

Farmington (18-10) will definitely have to bring its “A” game to St. Paul next week as they drew second-seeded Andover (25-2) in the opening round. The two teams met in the opening round of last’s years state tourney with the Huskies prevailing 7-1. Face-off is scheduled for 11:00 Wednesday morning at the Ex.