Prep athletes of the week: Breck goalie Sarah Peterson digs in after an early blip

A tough loss to Hill-Murray two days earlier required a strong response. Peterson, a sophomore goalie with the poise of a player much older, provided it.

Peterson stopped 40 of 41 shots she faced Saturday in a 2-1 victory over Blake, putting the three-time defending champion Mustangs back on their customary winning track.

"We knew we had to step up in this game," Peterson said. "We were a little disappointed ourselves after the last one."

For Peterson, it started long before the game, with her essential morning breakfast of mom's scrambled eggs. "Mom has to make them," she confirmed. "Dad puts things like peas in them. That's not right."

Blake scored first, 90 seconds into the game. Peterson, who shut out Cloquet in the 2020 Class 1A championship game, took is as a personal affront and dug in.

"I wasn't discouraged. I just told myself I had to stay focused," she said.

Seeing and tracking the puck well, she stood firm over the next 49½ minutes. Breck scored twice in the second period to take a 2-1 lead and Peterson made it stand up, stopping a 17-shot barrage from Blake in the final period.

"We all kind of felt the pressure of a [possible] four-peat, but we're not focused on that now," she said. "We're just working hard, trying to improve each game."

The sophomore 132-pounder improved his record to 24-0 last week with four victories, three of them by pin, including topping Hunter Frost of Farmington. "Overall, he has been really dominant this season," coach Dan Recchio said.

The junior has been a consistent scoring threat all season. The future Gophers forward had 29 points in an 85-55 victory over Chanhassen and 31 points in 72-33 rout of St. Louis Park. She has scored fewer than 20 points only once in 10 games.

The senior 195-pounder reached 200 career victories by beating Quinn Christoffersen of South St. Paul on Thursday. Saturday, he added two more, highlighted by an 8-7 victory over Garrison Solliday of St. Thomas Academy.

Over the Spartans' past three games, the junior forward has racked up eight goals and six assists for 14 points. Last week, it was two goals and two assists in an 11-0 rout of Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato and two goals and an assist in a 5-0 victory over Waconia.

The junior posted the best reported all-around score in the metro this season, 37.625 in a victory over East Ridge. She scored 9.55 on uneven bars, 9.525 on floor exercise, 9.5 on balance beam and 9.05 on vault.