Reilly, Sutton Continue Minnesota-to-PSU Parade

Continuing a mission to bring the top players from the top high school programs in Minnesota to Penn State, Josh Brandwene and his staff have landed rising seniors Caitlin Reilly from Benilde-St. Margaret's and Bella Sutton from Mounds View.

Reilly announced her pledge on Twitter...

...while Sutton's was shared through a congratulatory tweet from now-fellow PSU recruit Christi Vetter.

Caitlin Reilly

Forward
Benilde-St. Margaret's (MN) HS
5'5" // Chanhassen, MN
DOB 9/4/1995

MNgirlshockeyhub.com BSM page

Season	Team	Lge.	GP	G	A	Pts.	PIM
2009-10	Breck High School	MN-HS	30	12	13	25	14
2010-11	Benilde-St. Margaret's HS	MN-HS	27	18	27	45	12
2011-12	Benilde-St. Margaret's HS	MN-HS	28	19	12	31	10
2012-13	Benilde-St. Margaret's HS	MN-HS	28	28	33	61	20

Reilly exploded in her junior year at BSM, with her 57 regular-season points tying her for 17th in the state. She, along with linemates Kelly Pannek (eighth in state scoring) and Brittany Wheeler (16th), was a matchup headache for coaches across Minnesota.

As one might expect with that kind of firepower, the Red Knights didn't play in a ton of competitive hockey games during a North Suburban League title-winning 25-3-0 campaign. One of the rare exceptions: Minnetonka.

While few have done much to slow down the Tonka truck recently, BSM has come as close to dethroning the three-time defending champs as anyone. In 2012-2013, the Skippers and Knights passed the state's top ranking back and forth, with BSM taking charge after a 3-0 win on December 18, 2012 that saw a late Reilly insurance goal. Minnetonka - led by PSU freshmen Amy Petersen and Laura Bowman, of course - got payback ten days later by handing the Red Knights a 2-1 defeat. Although Reilly scored early in the third period of the Section 6AA championship game to give her team a 2-0 lead, Minnetonka stormed back with three late goals in a 4:02 span to steal the rubber match on the way to state title number three.

It was the third straight time that the Skippers ended Benilde's season in the sectional final on the way to a state title. Suffice it to say that Reilly and her teammates aren't upset about the fact that much of their nemesis' core is now safely in college.

In 2012-2013 matches that weren't as tightly contested, Reilly put up a pair of five-point outings (at St. Louis Park on December 15, 2012, at Spring Lake Park on January 5th) as well as a six-point game on January 15th against Chisago Lakes.

Despite playing for the powerful Red Knights for the past three years, she came closest to a state title as an eighth grader on a Breck High School squad that advanced to the Minnesota small-school championship game before falling to Warroad. Reilly was sixth on the team in scoring.

Reilly, among many other honors, attended the USA Hockey Select 17, Select 16 and Select 15 Player Development Camps and was an all-state honorable mention last year. Her family has a decided Big Ten flavor to it: she is the sister of Minnesota men's players Connor, Ryan and Mike Reilly (a trio that, incidentally, teamed up with PSU's Curtis Loik on the 2011-2012 RBC Cup-winning Penticton Vees) as well as of Shannon, who played for the Ohio State women from 2007-2011. Father Mike is a former player at Colorado College and Minnesota who was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 1977.

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Bella Sutton carries through center in a 2012 Minnesota AA quarterfinal match against Edina

Bella Sutton

Defender
Mounds View (MN) HS
Height unknown // Mounds View, MN
DOB 1996

MNgirlshockeyhub.com Mounds View page

Season	Team	Lge.	GP	G	A	Pts.	PIM
2009-10	Mounds View High School	MN-HS	16	1	6	7	0
2010-11	Mounds View High School	MN-HS	25	5	15	20	10
2011-12	Mounds View High School	MN-HS	30	12	23	35	18
2012-13	Mounds View High School	MN-HS	28	14	23	37	18

Sutton, like Reilly, comes highly decorated. She was on the all-state team and also attended the USA Hockey Select U18 and Select 16 Player Development Camps. Her point total last season, despite playing defense, placed her among the top 100 scorers in Minnesota, joining Nittany Lions Petersen and Bowman, as well as commits Vetter and Reilly (freshman Sarah Nielsen missed 100th place by two points).

She also has the unfortunate similarity of an outstanding junior season (her Mounds View Mustangs went 24-2-2 overall) cut off in the sectional championship game, in Sutton's case through an upset at the hands of rival Irondale.

Before that though, Mounds View plowed just about everyone, with Sutton's elite-level offense from the back end playing a huge role. She had an early season stretch of seven consecutive multi-point games (and 10 in 11), then later put up a goal and three assists in a January 22nd win at Cretin-Derham Hall. But don't sell her leadership as a junior captain short either. The Mustangs started the campaign on an 11-game winning streak, but it was snapped with an unexpected tie against White Bear Lake on December 22, 2012. Sutton had no trouble setting things right:

"We did not come ready to play," [she said afterwards]. "It was the first day of winter break, and I don't think we came in with the right mentality. We didn't bring our heart and character."

Enough said. Mounds View went on another 11-game streak from there.

Sutton's leadership on the ice has been especially important, as her team went through three coaching staffs over her sophomore and junior seasons. Often, that kind of turnover can spell disaster, but she deserves a share of the credit for the fact that it didn't. And about that offense (she's number 10 in white)...



Mounds View made it one step further in 2011-2012 - to the state tournament at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul - but lost to Edina in the quarterfinals with Nielsen potting the winner. Sutton had a career-high five points (on a goal and four assists) in a blowout of East Ridge on December 20, 2011.

The state tournament berth, the school's first since 1999, came off of a pair of less successful seasons: 11-15-0 in 2010-2011 and 13-10-2 in 2009-2010, when Sutton was in eighth grade.