Feb. 20—ST. PAUL, Minn. — When Jaylie French got behind the Dodge County defenders in overtime, the Warroad girls hockey faithful took a collective sigh of relief.
The Warriors' standout junior forward already had five points in Friday's state Class A semifinal game at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul. But after the Wildcats rallied to score two extra-attacker goals in the final 85 seconds, Warroad needed one more.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFrench caught Dodge County on an ill-timed line change. She received a 100-foot pass from Vivienne Marcowka before beating DC goalie Faith Humphrey with a left-to-right deke 11 minutes and 42 seconds into overtime for a 6-5 win.
"I was cherry-picking," French quipped. "Viv saw me. I was like, 'OK, you got to bury this."
It was a moment that seemed hard to fathom for the Warriors just 20 minutes earlier.
Holding a 5-3 lead, Warroad went on the power play with 3:42 left in regulation. The Wildcats killed off Zoe Helmer's minor infraction, then scored their first 6-on-5 goal with 85 seconds left off Helmer's stick.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThen, with 20 seconds remaining in regulation, Bryn Spreiter dislodged the GCA's roof with a second extra-attacker goal, completing her hat trick with a heroic tying goal.
"Giving up two late, that's as big a collapse as I've been a part of," Warroad head coach Izzy Marvin said. "I give the players all the credit in the world for sticking with it. There were a lot of opportunities to fold up our tent, and these guys . . . refused to."
While the afternoon ended with French's breakaway, the day belonged to Taylor Reese. Warroad's senior captain received a chorus of boos from a healthy Dodge County student section during the pregame introductions and each time she touched the puck. It stems from her pointed comments after Wednesday's quarterfinal win over Luverne.
Reese
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementwanted a rematch.
Warroad and Dodge County have met in the state championship each of the last two seasons. The Warriors won it in 2024 before Dodge County became a first-time state champion a year ago.
In last year's Class A title game, Helmer, now a senior,
scored the title-winning goal with 1:03 left in the first overtime session,
but it didn't come without drama.
Helmer was one of the
only players on the ice who saw the puck cross the goal line.
She sprinted to the Dodge County bench, pleading with head coach Jeremy Gunderson to review the play. After a lengthy review, the Wildcats were crowned state champions for the first time in school history.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"No, I did not," Reese said when asked if she expected the reaction she got from the Dodge County spectators on Friday. "I didn't expect that to happen, but here we are."
Marvin said, "It's from playing in big games. We're meeting them in big games, and that's how rivalries start. It's good, it's a good thing."
Two days ago, Reese talked the talk. On Friday, walked the walk.
Trailing 2-0 after the first period, Reese got one back for the Warriors shorthanded 13 seconds into the middle frame. Her second goal tied the game at 3-3 late in the second period before she completed her hat trick midway through the third.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"That was a pretty quiet dressing room after the first," Marvin said. "(To) come out and get a big shorthanded goal, and then you kind of give one up again, there's another downer we got to regroup from."
Reese, French and center Linnea Harren combined for six goals and six assists in Friday's win.
Two of Reese's goals came on zone-entry rushes.
"My line did a really good job of getting me the puck," Reese said. "Jaylie had two really nice passes to me. I think just splitting the D, I knew that was open, just kind of how Jaylie got her goal a little bit at the end there. The D were wide open and I was able to get around them."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHarren scored 42 seconds into the third period to give the Warriors their first lead. It was the third in a streak of four consecutive goals scored, with Reese's third coming later in the period to take a 5-3 lead.
Spreiter and Kylie Meyer gave Dodge County a 2-0 lead late in the first period. Spreiter scored her second of three goals one minute into the third period.
And despite trailing by two against the tournament's top-seeded team with under two minutes left, No. 4 Dodge County players never lost faith.
"We all knew that we could do it," DC forward Maysie Koch said. "Even in the section finals, we were down and came back. So I think it's just everyone playing together and having the confidence that we can do it."
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWarroad and Dodge County have met at state in each of the last three years now. They have a history of playing regular-season holiday tournaments, but it's become an unlikely rivalry between two state powers located over 400 miles apart.
"I think it's just taking pride," Gunderson said when asked about Dodge County's rivalry with Warroad. "I think (Marvin) takes a lot of pride, like we do. We want to beat the metro teams, of course, like anybody does, like he does.
"You kind of want to own your area. We take a lot of pride in trying to be the best team down south. We always joke with each other because he wants to have the best team up north. Let's meet down here and take out the metro schools. This year, with the private (schools) popping up, we were hoping we'd have a better matchup, like we'll take one out and you take out yours and we meet in the finals."
Both Warroad (23-5-1) and Dodge County (21-7-1) will get a crack at a private school on championship Saturday. The Warriors will face Breck 4 p.m., while the Blake will meet the Wildcats with third place on the line at 10 a.m.
Reese kept her preferred opponent to herself this time.
"I can't answer that," she said with a laugh.
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