Junior middie Jake Rossman registered a team-high five points on four goals and one assist, and he scored the go-ahead goal in the fourth quarter, to lead No. 16 Minnetonka to a 10-9 victory over Eden Prairie in the Minnesota State High School League Section 6 championship game Thursday night at Robbinsdale Armstrong.

Senior attackman Pete Carbonneau added three points on a goal and two assists to help the unbeaten, top-seeded Skippers (16-0) win their first-ever Section 6 title and end second-seeded Eden Prairie’s two-year run at the top of the region.

With the victory, Minnetonka has advanced to the state semifinals for the first time in school history and will almost certainly be the No. 1 seed when it plays a yet-to-be determined opponent on Wednesday, June 3, at Hopkins High School.

“We’ve got to start over,” Minnetonka head coach Aaron Olivier said. “It’s a brand-new season. We cannot let down, even though this was a big game. Eden Prairie was not the state championship. We have to get back to work.”

On Thursday, senior attackman Matt Wyer and sophomore middie Parker Weinstock each added a goal and an assist for Minnetonka, which blew a six-goal halftime lead before pulling it out in the fourth quarter. Senior middie Charles Earl Hanson, senior middie Jay Morgan and junior middie Ned Wolff all had a goal to round out the scoring.

Defensively, senior goalie Alex Nikas saved 10 shots.

In defeat, sophomore middie Mitch Hugdahl had a game-high six points on four goals and two assists, and senior middie Alex Gilbert added three points on two goals and an assist for Eden Prairie, which finished the season 13-2.

“We have a lot of young players, and they played with a lot of heart,” Eden Prairie assistant coach Scott Hugdahl said. “We started winning face-offs in the second half, and that turned the game around for us. Down the stretch, we made a couple mistakes. We had our chances, we just couldn’t finish them up.”

Minnetonka led 2-0 at the end of the first quarter and 7-1 at halftime before Eden Prairie stormed back in the second half. The Eagles closed within 7-6 at halftime and tied the game, 9-9, when Mitch Hugdahl scored with 4:19 to play in regulation.

But Rossman answered, scoring 51 seconds later to put the Skippers ahead to stay.

“They game-planned us incredibly at halftime,” Olivier said. “We didn’t have one offensive possession in the third quarter, and they tried to wear our defense down. But I’m very proud of our resolve and drive to not break.”