Mayo continues onslaught through Big 9 in win over Northfield

By Nick Gerhardt

Rochester Mayo continued its romp through conference opponents Thursday with a 17-7 victory over Northfield at Memorial Field at Northfield High School.

The Big 9 Conference-leading Spartans (7-1, 6-1 Big 9) got six goals from senior attacker Liam Smith. Mayo had four two-goal scorers in senior Lucas Cramer, eighth-grader Max Erickson, senior Reese Ackerman while senior Nolan Torgerson, sophomore Tore Papenfuss, junior Dylan Theobald and senior Blake Olson each added one goal each. 

Northfield junior Cam Waters scored three times on senior night for the Raiders and ninth-grader Grant Selchow lifted Northfield to a 1-0 first-quarter lead with 8 minutes, 54 seconds left in the quarter.

But then Smith got rolling with three goals while Cramer and Papenfuss added goals with Waters’ goal sandwiched between to make it 5-2 by the end of the quarter.

The Spartans took control of the game with a six-goal second quarter as part of a 7-0 run to lead 11-2 at halftime en route to their sixth straight win.

Waters’ second goal and senior Blake Foster’s goal with 10:51 left in the third quarter cut it to 11-4 but Ackerman scored twice before the end of the quarter to push it to a 13-4 game. 

Northfield junior Cam Mellgren made it 13-5 with a goal that came 54 seconds into the fourth quarter and Waters notched his third goal after Mayo’s Cramer scored to make it 14-6 with 8:07 left in the game. 

The Spartans, who beat the Raiders 14-3 April 24 in Rochester, went on a 3-0 run before ninth-grader George Peterson scored with 2:22 left to make it 17-7.

Northfield faces Rochester Century Friday in Rochester. The Panthers beat the Raiders 11-10 April 17 in Northfield in the first meeting.