Park’s softball and flag football teams are already in the state tournaments. Now the Wolfpack girls lacrosse team is a win away from making it a trio.

The ninth-ranked Wolfpack pulled away from a slow start to dominate visiting East Ridge Monday evening, winning 11-5 in a Class 1A Section 3 semifinal at Cottage Grove.

Second-seeded Park (11-3) will now take on No. 6 and top-seeded Cretin-Derham Hall (12-1) for the section title Wednesday evening at Cretin with the winner going to state. Game time is 7 p.m.

“They’ll be tough,” said Park head coach Bailey Aasen. “They’re the top seed, they’ll come out with a high-pressure defense. It was a close game the first time around. I’m expecting a good competition, but I think we can definitely take control if we come fully prepared.”

Cretin easily defeated fourth-seeded St. Croix Prep 18-0 in the other Section 3 semifinal. The Raiders edged Park 6-5 in double overtime in the team’s regular season meeting back on April 28.

Park started slowly Monday against the Raptors and led just 3-2 after one period. But the Wolfpack caught fire in the second, outscoring East Ridge 4-1 to take a 7-3 halftime lead.

“I think we just really needed to warm up after having a weekend off and like not playing at all,” said Brinkman, who led Park with three assists. “After the break we just kind of clicked.”

Park pushed the lead to 9-3 after three periods and was in complete charge the second half.

“We started taking control of the ball a little bit more,” said Aasen. “Again, we continue to have a hard time with the pressure of a backer and the turnovers.”

The Wolfpack won 14 out of 20 draws against the Raptors. “They were amazing,” Aasen agreed.

“I think that we cut and we passed and we really worked as a team, and he draw was really good said defender Lauren Tait. “We really dominated the draw and that’s how we got possession and got a lot of our goals and we had a lot of assists. All together we just played together as a really good team.”

Maleah McMorrow punched in four goals to lead the Wolfpack. Taylor Siemer scored three times, Sidni Gitzen had two goals, while Alaina Wright and Madison Milosevich had one each.

Senior goalie Lauryn Ehrenstrom had seven saves, including four in the fourth, against 12 shots.

The Wolfpack defeated East Ridge 9-4 during the regular season.

Park 16, St. Paul/Two Rivers 1

Host and second-seeded Park easily opened the playoff season with an easy 16-1 victory over visiting S. Paul/Two Rivers in a Class 1A, Section 3 quarterfinal game Thursday.

Morgan Brinkman, Maleah McMorrow and Madison Milosevich each slammed in three goals to lead the Wolfpack. Alaina Wright and Ramsey Nelson had two goals each. Alexis Sullivan, Taylor Siemer and Chloe Newhouse each added one score.

Goalie Lauryn Ehrenstrom pitched a shutout in the half she played, allowing no scores in four attempts. Claire Wilson got the start in goal in the second half and allowed one goal in two attempts.

The Wolfpack led 7-0 after one period and 12-0 at the half and 15-0 after three periods.