Boys Lacrosse: St. Cloud upends Warriors in home finale

BRAINERD — It was the Connor show for the St. Cloud Crush Monday, May 22.

Connor Wavrin and Connor Harens combined for 11 goals for the Crush as they dispatched of the Warriors 16-5 in Brainerd’s final home game of the regular season.The 11-goal win was aided by a six-goal first quarter. Wavrin scored the first of his seven goals 17 seconds in to put the Crush on the board.

Harens followed with a goal at the 2:45 mark of the first quarter to make it 2-0. Wavrin then scored St. Cloud’s next three goals and after a Samuel Binsfeld goal with 49 seconds left, the Crush led 6-0 after the first quarter.

“We needed that quick start really badly,” St. Cloud head coach Bailey Steadman said. “We’ve had a lot of slow starts the last week or two. So we needed to come out and be ready to play today.”

The Warriors got on the board two minutes into the second quarter on a goal from Connor Knight. Harens grabbed his second goal 37 seconds later to give St. Cloud a 7-1 lead.

“We wanted to be tighter than we were tonight,” Warriors head coach Adam Extrand said. “The last few games we’ve played really well defensively and I don’t think we played great defensively tonight. We just got out-skilled, but did a nice job in the second quarter to fight back a little bit after the slow start.”

The Warriors closed out the half with two goals. Zac Birks found the net with 4:23 left in the second quarter and Tanner Karsnia scored to make it 7-3 at the half.

The second half started like the first half with Wavrin netting a goal, this time 18 seconds in. Like the first quarter, Harens followed Wavrin’s lead with a goal nearly three minutes into the third quarter and St. Cloud led 9-3.

“They work really well together,” Steadman said. “Wavrin has such good stick skills. He can do a fake and everyone is looking the other way. He can do a good dodge than get a good shot. He’s also very sneaky in moving off the ball. Harens is going to be the guy who dodges and gets more speed to get up the field with the ball and then move it to Wavrin to dump it in.”

Birks responded for the Warriors with his second goal at the 3:31 mark of the third quarter.

“Birks has been good for us,” Extrand said. “We missed him. He was hurt for a while and that hurt our team. Since he’s been back he’s been one of our top scorers. He probably put more time in the offseason than any other player and he’s getting rewarded for that.”

Steve Kohls / Brainerd Dispatch

Warvin’s sixth goal and a Joseph Torborg goal gave the Crush an 11-4 lead into the fourth quarter.

Brainerd cut into the lead 29 seconds into the fourth quarter when Niko Buffetta scored, but the Crush would score the next five goals, including Harens’ fourth and Wavrin’s seventh.

Brainerd’s goalie Liam Luther notched 18 saves. The Warriors drop to 3-9 and finish the regular season against Sartell/Sauk Rapids Tuesday, May 23.

The Section 8 playoffs for the Warriors will start Monday, May 29, with matchups to be determined later in the week.

“We just want to keep working on the basics,” Extrand said. “The simple passing and catching — sometimes we get a little excited and are not crisp and have too many turnovers, so we have to eliminate that.”

CONRAD ENGSTROM may be reached at 218-855-5861 or conrad.engstrom@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/the_rad34.