LACROSSE: Saline Dominant in Playoff Opener vs Huron

Saline opened the 2021 MHSAA lacrosse tournament by beating up on Huron, 20-2.

Saline advances to the regional semifinal against Skyline, who beat Pioneer, 11-9, Thursday. The game begins at 5 p.m.

On the other side of the bracket, Plymouth faces Canton in the semifinal. The regional final is set for 6 p.m., June 1.

Brodie Mahmud led the Hornet attack scoring five goals. Mahmud and the Hornets came into the game confident, having beat Huron twice this year by a combined score of 43-6.

"I came into the game with the mindset that we were going to win and everything unfolded the way it did. I had a good game," Mahmud said. "We've had some ups and downs (this season). We have a thing where we start low to the ground and have to build ourselves back up as the game goes on. But once we get ourselves going, we're a very capable team."

Mahmud scored five goals on just five shots.

Brendan Shinavier, Owen Miller, and Blaise Blastos each scored twice. Shinavier was one of two Hornets to score on "behind the back" shots. Blastos received the game's biggest cheer on one of his goals. He took a pass deep in his own zone and was met at midfield by a Huron defender. The two collided and the defender fell to the turf as Blastos plowed on. Blastos ran the rest of the way down the field and scored.

"I got a great pass from a teammate and I started running up the field. Number 7 came running at me and it was either hit or no hit. He went down and I just went through him," Blastos said.

The hit, itself, would have made for a great highlight, but Blastos ran the rest of the way down the field and capped it all off with a goal. Blastos described the feeling of finishing that sequence off with a goal.

"It was just like telling them (Huron), go home," Blastos said.

Also scoring were Eli Routt,  Xavier Spickard, Brady Fiske, CJ Robison, Brendan  Torzewksi, Gavin Klaassem, Nat Keller and Liam Belote.

Klaassen and Robison each had two assists. Spickard picked up 10 ground balls and Shinavier grabbed 9.

Chris Peterson picked up the win in goal.

More News from Saline

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• SOFTBALL: Dorr Helps Saline Ace Pickney Saline senior Karli Dorr crunched four hits, drove in four runs and earned the victory with a complete game against Pinckney on Wednesday.