Youthful Lakeville North boys lacrosse team aims for spot at state

After a down season for the Lakeville North boys lacrosse team, the Panthers are in position to make another state tournament run.

The Panthers, 11-2 in the regular season, made a five-win improvement from last year to take the No. 1 seed in the Section 1 playoffs. They defeated Lakeville South 17-1 on Wednesday and will play New Prague on Saturday in the semifinals.

"I think with the group we got we should be the favorites to come out of our section," Panthers coach Matt Stonestrom said. "Then you get to be one of the eight in state. You just never know what you are going to get [in the state tournament]. We just want to get back there.

"There will be some really good ballgames. Hopefully we will be on the right side of them."

The Panthers coaching staff took a moment after falling to Northfield in the section semifinal last year before holding individual meetings and making offseason development plans. It was during those meetings that they felt this team had something special.

"You could tell [this year's group of leaders] were going to hold themselves accountable and those around them. They really started to drive the ship in the right direction," Stonestrom said.

Along with the leadership group on the field, a few young players got valuable experience last season, more than the coaching staff had expected.

That set up a team that this season has six double-digit scorers, led by sophomores Blake Piscitiello and Lane Johnson. Another sophomore, Carson Piscitiello, is fourth on the team in goals.

The Panthers lost two of the last four games of the regular season, losses that Stonestrom sees as building blocks. The Panthers are looking for their first state tournament title; they were runners-up in 2016.

"It's been a different vibe around the team this year for sure," Stonestrom said. "It's just another year for all of our young guys to have played together and had an offseason together. I would say last year we were so thin. We probably played a lot more freshmen than we would have anticipated. We're kind of reaping the rewards this year of physically and mentally matured sophomores.

"I would say too this group really galvanized and became singularly focused on making a deep state run. There is more cohesion and unity in this team, more aligned in what their interests are and what they want to do before and after practice, how they want to practice, things like that."

The Panthers took on a very difficult schedule in 2023, playing five teams that ranked in the state's top 10. They went 4-1 in those games, including an 18-7 win over No. 3 Edina in the regular-season finale.

"We tried to get as many difficult games as we could so we would be battle-tested when we got to the playoffs," Stonestrom said. "I don't know that was something we were necessarily prepared for as well last year. Hopefully we are peaking and trending in the right direction at the right time."