Prep athletes of the week: St. Michael-Albertville goalie stopping everything

It was late December and Damon, a senior goalie, was struggling. "I had one bad game and I lost my confidence," he said.

Less than two months later, he is the hottest goalie in the state. Damon is riding a seven-game winning streak and has shut out the Knights' past four opponents. Dating to Feb. 3, he has blanked Princeton 9-0, Maple Grove 3-0, Cambridge-Isanti 15-0 and Buffalo 4-0, making 68 saves.

For the season, Damon is 17-5 with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage.

"The rest of the team has been playing really well in front of me," Damon said. "I'm seeing the puck really well."

His rough stretch behind him, Damon, whose strength is his lateral movement across the crease, said faith in himself and the support of his teammates have been key to his recent success.

"During my rough patch, the team still knew I could do it," he said. "They were coming around, telling me to keep my head up and that they had confidence in me."

He's been repaying that support with his recent hot streak. "The team has been getting [a goal] early and that makes my job easier," he said. "I've found my groove."

The sophomore forward/center posted a triple-double — 29 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocked shots — in a 79-74 victory over St. Francis. Becher followed that with a 28-point, 15-rebound effort in a 73-67 upset of Class 4A, No. 7 Cretin-Derham Hall.

The junior narrowly defeated Hermantown's Austin Danelski to win the Section 7 individual championship at Giants Ridge last Tuesday. Damberg's two runs totaled 1:12.58, .06 seconds ahead of Danelski.

TAYLOR HEISE

Heise has had a prolific high school career, but the senior forward set a new milestone when she scored a career-high seven goals in a 10-0 victory over Austin. The future Gophers player scored her 200th career goal in the game and now has 202.

Before Wednesday, it had been 10 years since the Stars had won a postseason game. They broke that streak with a 3-0 victory over Totino-Grace in the Class 1A, Section 5 quarterfinals with McGuire, a sophomore forward, scoring two goals.

SARAH OLSON

Olson, a junior, dominated the field en route to the individual pursuit championship at the Section 5 meet at Theodore Wirth Park. Her combined time for the freestyle and classic races of 35:37.7 was more than two minutes ahead of the runner-up.

With two victories Friday, the senior 132-pounder improved to 34-1. He needs two victories to reach 150 for his high school career. If he wins seven more matches this season, Youngs will move into the top five winningest wrestlers in program history.

JIM PAULSEN

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