Tigers Spread the Wealth in 11-1 rout of Irish

by Pat Rupp

Tuesday night’s 11-1 rout of winless Rosemount was truly a team effort. Seven different players scored goals for the winners and a dozen made it into the scoring column..

“We played our regular lineup for the first period and they went hard,” Farmington coach Jon Holmes said. “Rosemount did a nice job of clearing rebounds and keeping the shots from outside.

“In the second period we sat about eight players and gave opportunities to those that may not normally get power play time or those that may not even see ice time in a varsity game.”

The visitors reeled off six unanswered scores in the opening period to set the stage for the contest. Maddi Oines, Dani Wright, Jenna Gerold, Marissa Agerter, Lexie Budensiek and Kayla Schultz all found the net during the first 17 minutes of play.

Jerold netted two more goals in the second period and Budensiek added her second of the night to make it 8-1 heading to the final break.

A pair of third period goals by Jessica Jensen closed out the night’s offensive fireworks.

Gerold’s hat trick and Budensiek’s two goals and an assist made three points for each but game scoring honors went to Cassie Knutson who dished out four assists.

Jensen (two goals), Wright (one goal, one assist), Megan Bernu (two assists) and Elizabeth Auge (two assists) each recorded two points. Schultz, Oines, Agerter, Carly Simon and Emily Rubins each had one.

Abby Bollig patrolled the Farmington nets and faced only seven shots, stopping six. The Tigers outshot the Irish by an eye-catching 45-7.

With the victory, the Tigers advanced their season record to 14-6-3 and 9-5-3 in South Suburban Conference play.

Despite the lopsided result at Rosemount, Holmes was quick to mention the effort of the over-matched opposition which hasn’t seen much on-the-ice success this season.

“They didn’t have their regular goalie and so it was an admirable effort on the part of their tender who was willing to get in there and compete,” he said. “So did their skaters as they kept the puck out of the house as much as possible. The level of commitment and determination the Irish showed was inspiring considering they only had 11 players.”

The one-sided win served as a tune-up for Friday night’s rematch with league-leading Lakeville South at Schmitz-Maki Arena. The Cougars scratched out a 2-1 win when the two teams met at Hasse Arena earlier in the season.

Farmington closes out the regular season Saturday with a non-conference game at Hastings. Section 1AA post-season play begins next Wednesday.