By Dave Erickson

The Hastings Raiders Lacrosse team opened the season on April 21 at Todd Field with a win over the Minneapolis Storm. The boys came out fast and put up 19 in the win over the Storm.

The Raiders were on Todd Field for the first time since last year’s final regular season game. Hastings was supposed to host their first home playoff game last year but that was moved to Hill Murray due to a Sunday graduation.

For Thursday’s game, the Raider defense played exceptionally, only giving up three goals in the win. Owen Glade, Brady Nickel, and Joey Werner looked great throughout the game against Minneapolis. That allowed the Raiders to get a lot of other defensemen in the game. Logan Tryba, Cody Vinje and Zander Hallis all got to see a lot of time on the field.

The explosive nature of the Raider offense and the 19point win allowed the Raiders to get a lot of younger players time on Todd Field.

Sophomore Ryan Clemons added another goal to his early season total, Carter Simpson got one and Wyatt Vieth got a couple, three players that will be leaned on to play a lot of minutes next year. Juniors Hunter Rowan, Tom Kennedy, and Tom Reifenberger as well sophomore Sawyer Zaruba also have also seen good field time this year with high expectations for next year.

The scoring was led by senior Colin Duerkop with five, junior Kody Niederkorn with three, sophomore Luke Chorlton added three to his total. Sophomore Brady Nickel along with seniors Ben Zaccardi, Ben Clemons and Max Lidtke all added one to the scoring sheet.

John Chorlton controlled the field with double digit ground balls and takeaways again, making it hard for Minneapolis to get anything going on ether end.

The Raiders will have a full week of games with the Wolf Pack from Park of Cottage Grove coming to Todd Field on April 25. Hastings will travel the short trip to the turf at Simley to play the Spartans on April 26 and then finishing the week at home with Two Rivers April 29. May 3, Hastings will go on the road to HillMurray before returning home to host Tartan on May 4. All games are scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

Photo by Bruce Karnick