The Faribault Falcons were impressive in a 4-1 win at All Season Arena in Mankato over the very potent Mankato West Scarlets on Saturday.

Falcon head coach Ali Miller told KDHL before the broadcast they were not going to do anything special to hold down the state's leading scorer sophomore, Courtney Bloemke.

Miller said, "We're just going to play our game." I asked what she would define as our game and she replied, "Move the puck and shoot, shoot, shoot."

That's exactly what the Falcons did. There was a scoreless first period and Faribault killed off one penalty.

Twenty-six seconds into the second period Faribault took a 1-0 lead on a goal from senior Alexis Ferris from the red circle to the right of senior Scarlet goalie Maggie Cusey. A hard pass right on the stick of Ferris from Madison Beaupre from around the other circle led to the goal. It was Ferris's third goal and Beaupre's third assist of the season.

Mankato West answered at the 14:50 mark of the second period on a goal that I thought should have been waved off. Miller agreed, noting Falcon goalie Lauren Werner was knocked down by a Scarlet (it looked like she was literally tackled on the play). Sophomore Shelby Lund was credited with her second goal of the season and it was tied heading into the Faribault Foods second intermission report.

Mankato West killed off a penalty in that period.

The officials really let a lot go. Twice it appeared Faribault was clearly tripped with no penalty called. In fact, in the first trip the stick got caught on the skate of Alexis Ferris and couldn't get it off her skate as she was leaving the ice.

I don't know if that's what motivated Faribault in the third period, but they dominated the action, controlling the puck and winning draws to keep the puck away from the Big Nine's highest scoring team.

The Falcons got their second goal 4:18 into the period when eighth-grader Olivia Williamson scored her third goal of the season on a nice assist from classmate Olivia Moreland. It was Moreland's second assist.

At 12:34, Ellie Knutson collected her first goal of the year, with the fourth assist by sophomore Allyson McCoshen.

Faribault's final goal came a little over a minute later when Ferris picked up her second goal of the night and fourth of the season on the first assist by Williamson.

With the win, Faribault improved to 4-0 in the Big Nine and 4-0-2 overall. Mankato West fell to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

Our State Farm Insurance Faribault players of the game were Werner, Williamson and Ferris courtesy of Faribault State Farm agents Jason Krohn and Tony Langerud.

Faribault hosts Austin on Tuesday and Mankato West will play Mankato East on December 1.

All Seasons Arena Mankato view from my perch
All Seasons Arena Mankato
loading...

More From KQCL Power 96