The Trojans came into the game 12-0-0 with a chance to finish a second straight perfect season with a win over the Crusaders. Instead, Anderson Girls’ Lax lost for the first time in 716 days. Their last loss had come to Mckinney on May 8th, 2021, but St. Michael’s narrowly got the better of the Trojans Monday night.
Anderson led 5-4 after a tight, defensive first half before the Crusaders jumped out to a 7-6 lead early in the second. The Trojans tied it up at 7 with a huge goal from senior Veena Patel with under 11 minutes remaining, but St. Michael’s answered with a goal of their own to retake the one-goal lead. After an Annie Small goal made it 8 all, neither team scored on their next few attempts. Emma Bethke was phenomenal with several key saves to keep the Trojans in the game.
Eventually, though Bethke committed a penalty chasing a ground ball behind the net and was forced to start 4 meters behind the St. Michael’s attacker. This allowed the Crusaders a major advantage as Anderson had no one in the net for a few moments of play. By the time Emma was back in goal it was too late and SMCS was able to sneak one by her to gain a 9-8 advantage with 2:12 to go in the game. The Trojans won the ensuing draw but were never able to get a quality shot off and fell just short of a second straight perfect season.
The Crusaders swarmed Anderson defensively and shut down much of the ball movement for the Trojans. Harper Jones and Annie Small had a pair of goals each, falling short of hat tricks for one of very few times this season. Olivia Andrus scored twice, and both Audrey Thompson and Veena Patel found the net once as well.
Small led Anderson with 4 points after a tough matchup with fellow D1 commit Fiona Tanis, while the latter had 4 goals of her own to lead the Crusaders. Other than Tanis, the Trojan defense really shut down St. Michael’s.
Despite the loss, Anderson is still gearing up for a big playoff run in a few weeks. The Trojans finished in a 3-way tie for first place in the district and opening playoff matchups have yet to be announced. We’ll have plenty of coverage leading up to the postseason so stay tuned for that coming soon.
