By Nick Gerhardt
A furious fourth quarter from Mankato vaulted it to a 7-6 come-from-behind victory over Northfield Tuesday at Memorial Field at Northfield High School.
The Raiders (1-6, 1-5 Big 9) entered the game on the heels of their first victory of the season and held control of the game Tuesday until late into the third quarter. A 4-0 Mankato run erased a Northfield three-goal lead.
Andrew Sorbo’s second goal of the game with 1 minute, 43 seconds left in the third quarter started the run and drew it to a 6-4. Sorbo and Gage Schmidt led the comeback in the fourth quarter.
Both Sorbo and Schmidt had three goals for Mankato (5-2, 3-1 Big 9) in the win.Schmidt scored twice in the fourth quarter, including the game-winner with 5:56 left to play after Sorbo tied it 6-6 with 9:39 to play. Schmidt’s second goal with 11:41 to play cut the Raiders lead to 6-5.
Northfield climbed out of a 2-0 deficit in the first quarter when junior attacker Cam Mellgren and junior Cooper Rand scored about two minutes apart.
The Raiders carried the momentum into the second quarter to build a 4-2 lead behind goals from junior Cam Waters and ninth-grader Grant Selchow. Mankato’s Gavin Villagomez cut the lead to 4-3 with a goal that came with 3:22 left in the first half.
Northfield senior Blake Foster extended the lead to 5-3 with a goal 2:37 into the second half and sophomore Tristan Westergren made it 6-3 after driving through defenders with 6:17 left in the third quarter.
The Raiders fell 11-7 to Mankato in the first meeting of the season and Northfield could have built some momentum heading into a Thursday meeting with conference leader Rochester Mayo at Memorial Field in Northfield.