Back on the Win Trail

By Pat Rupp

Farmington snapped a brief, two-game losing streak with a convincing 4-1 non-conference win over Blake Tuesday night at Schmitz-Maki Arena.

The victory gave the Tigers a season record of 12 wins and six losses. Coach Jon Holmes’ team stands 8-4 in South Suburban Conference play, locked in a third place tie with Apple Valley.

“This was a pretty solid game for us,” Homes said. “We had all kinds of opportunities against a goalie who played very well. “I’d say it was one of our better games on our forecheck and running the systems we practice…We still had some issues in the defensive zone but we managed.”

The Bears started strong, scoring the first goal, slipping the puck by Tiger goalie Kenna Underwood on a double-deflection midway through the opening period..

“She (Underwood) didn’t even see the puck,” Holmes said. “After that she played very well.”

Kennedy Meier (from Jenna Goblirsch and Lexi Giller) tied the score two minutes later on the power play and Taylor Risch (from Giller and Katie Klotz) gave the Tigers the lead for good later in the first.

Goblirsch made it 3-1 half way through the second period on assists from sister Amelia Goblirsch and Morgan Mitchell.

Amelia Goblirsch capped the victory with an unassisted empty-netter in the game’s closing moments.

Farmington finished the night with an eye-catching 50-20 shots on goal advantage. Underwood’s 19 saves ran her season record to 6-3.

“There are a lot of concepts we have been working on in practice that are coming into play now,” Holmes said.

The Tigers will test out those concepts quickly with two more games on the docket this week, South Suburban road contests at Lakeville North on Thursday and Prior Lake Saturday afternoon.

“The North game will be another good gauge for checking our progress,” Holmes said. “Even though the score was close (4-2) the first time we played, they beat us pretty good….We will have to find a way to stop their offense and, of course, get our forwards into the dirty areas around the net.”