Hopkins, Blake fall in puck finals
John Sherman - Sun Newspapers
February 20, 2008
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There was no joy on the Hopkins hockey scene Saturday as both Hopkins High and Blake School lost in section girls championship games.
The Royals were defeated by Benilde-St. Margaret's High 4-0 in the Section 6AA title game, while Blake saw an undefeated season end at the hands of Breck, 2-0, in the Section 5A title game.
Liz Burg scored two goals to lift BSM over Hopkins, while Kate Bacon and Emma Shields-Nordness had a goal apiece.
Hopkins season ended 21-4-3 with a Classic Lake Conference championship among its credits.
"Their goalie [Amanda Nagel] played her best game when she had to," said Hopkins head coach Vin Paolucci. "And the Benilde defense didn't allow us to penetrate much. We knew Benilde has good players...our girls have played against them in all-star stuff. My hat's off to them."
At the same time, Paolucci praised his team.
"Our kids have played hard all season, and I am proud of them," he said. "We had tremendous support from everyone at the school, from the administrators to the students, and the parents have also been very supportive.
"It always hurts when you finish a step away from the state tournament, but next year will give us another chance. We have girls with aspirations of going to state and playing on into college."
Among the players returning next season will be leading scorers Becky Kortum (59 points) and Cara Johnson (45 points). Starting goalie Kallie Billadeau is also going to return.
Blake School finished the season 23-1-3 with Saturday's loss to Breck.
Blake coach Brano Stankovsky said, "Breck played very well defensively and their senior leaders really stepped up. We had some good opportunities, but we needed a good bounce somewhere."
Blake advanced to the finals with a 9-0 semifinal win over Richfield Feb. 12.
Sara Cole and Sally Komarek led Blake's attack with two goals each and Kate Gallagher got the shutout in goal.
Reprinted with permission Sun Newspapers
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